What to Give Your Family Law Attorney

The single cheapest thing you can do in a custody matter is arrive organised.

Attorneys bill for time, and a meaningful share of that time goes on reconstructing a chronology from a client's phone, their memory and a folder of screenshots in no particular order. That work has to happen. It is just much cheaper when you do it.

Bring these first

Every existing order and agreement. The current custody order, the parenting plan, any temporary orders, and anything either of you signed. If you are not sure which version is operative, bring all of them and say so.

A one-page chronology. Dates down the left, one line each. When you separated, when orders were entered, when the schedule changed, when the significant incidents happened. This one page saves more billable time than anything else on the list.

Your communication record, complete and in one file rather than as screenshots.

Financial documents, if support or expenses are at issue — income, the expense record, what has been requested and paid.

The specific question you want answered. "What are my options if he keeps returning them three hours late" is a question. "I need to talk about the situation" is an hour.

What "organised" means in practice

Chronological. Not grouped by how upset each item made you.

Complete. A selected record raises the obvious question, and your attorney would much rather find the bad parts themselves than have opposing counsel do it.

Paginated and numbered. So the two of you can say "page 47" and mean the same thing. A single paginated PDF is worth more than folders of images for exactly this reason.

In one file. Not spread across a phone, an email account and a shoebox.

What not to bring

Everything. Four thousand pages of routine messages is not thoroughness; it is a bill. Bring the complete record as one file, and flag the dozen dates that matter.

Your own commentary woven through it. Facts in the record, opinions in the conversation. An annotated exhibit invites argument about the annotations.

Recordings you made without checking the law first. Recording rules vary significantly by state and some require every party to consent. Do not hand over something that creates a new problem — ask first.

Material about the other parent's private life that has nothing to do with the children. It is the most common thing clients want to raise and among the least likely to matter.

The thing attorneys say they wish clients understood

Most of what you want to put in front of a judge will not be used, and that is not a failure of your case.

The record's job is usually not to prove a single dramatic thing. It is to show a pattern, or to establish an unremarkable fact quickly so the argument can be about something else. A parent who can demonstrate in ninety seconds that they attended every medical appointment has done something more useful than one with a long story about a bad weekend.

Where Civly fits

Civly lets you pull the complete export yourself in one click — messages, calendar and expense records, timestamped, with metadata intact — and hand your attorney one document rather than assembling screenshots. A dedicated professional portal, where attorneys pull records directly, is in development.

That is the whole feature and it is deliberately narrow. It removes the assembling step, and the assembling step is where a lot of hours go.

Whether any of it is admitted in your case, and what weight it carries, is the judge's decision. Civly is not a law firm and does not give legal advice.

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This is general information, not legal advice. What is worth gathering and offering depends on your case, your state's rules and your attorney's judgement. Talk to a family law attorney licensed where you live.

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