I am facing many fears, representing myself in court soon, facing father who has 80% of traits of psychopath, just came to this realization recently, now the past (won't mention how many, but many) makes sense, and I am getting counseling and domestic violence support for psychological, emotional, and verbal abuse.

Does anyone have suggestions for how to respond in court if father lies? I am afraid he will lie, and of course he is very good at it. I have a lot of documentation to support my request, but seriously, I am afraid of the father.

Thank you for your input!

Wingsonearth

The one point I MUST make is to remain calm at all times in that courtroom. If not, YOU will appear to be the one with a mental problem. I've been where you are. My ex had a new wife who was the psychopath. Not even family! A nightmare, she was caught in lies after 7 years of court. She was teaching my then 4 year old son to call me "Mommy Lisa". HA! What a wack job. Cannot make sense of the nonsensical...ever. She abused him as well, but I had the burden of proof (none). They are genious at personas. Do NOT get emotional AT ALL in court. Keep your hands folded and sit up. Make Absolutely NO expressions, even when he lies. You will have your chance to speak. Also, do NOT be accusatory. Stick to FACTS and you will be very fine

Present your version as calm as it's humanly possible and show all the evidence you have. Actually if he happens to make a lie that you can disprove with evidence that can work to your favour.
I'm keeping fingers crossed for you.

Hi wingsonearth, welcome to our community. I totally agree with the comments from others are spot on. I know it is very, very difficult because when all this stuff comes to a head the victim can easily come across as the crazy one in the room.

What works for me before entering into a conflict type situation is to make sure I spend quiet time to get myself settled. Keep focused on the present moment and return to your breathe if you find yourself starting to spin. It will certainly be frustrating because he will more than likely come across like a real cool collected chap.

I wish I could say it will be easy. Please keep us posted.

Di

Thank you to everyone who responded. I wrote a powerful opening statement, practiced it in front of two close people, and took ativan. In short (so as not to give away revealing details), my proposal was granted.

HOWEVER, I AM AFRAID.

Our son told me today his father told him yesterday that he was taking him to another (son's birth) state (unnamed), had bought tickets, and are leaving tonight. While I doubt he would take our son tonight, I did some research and being a Psychopath (psychopath) is a risk factor for being abductor and his father has a number of other risk factors.

I am also afraid he is psychologically abusing our son by telling him this.

Does anyone have suggestions? His father is doing other controlling/psychological manipulation in other ways since yesterday but that does not bother me nearly as much as what our son told me today and then retracted when I told him I would have to call the police since his father has to give me 30 days notice of out of state travel (in hindsight, I shouldn't have said I would call the police, I should have asked more questions).

Can you move so that he does not know where you live?

Hi, I would take this very, very seriously. Can you tell him your son is sick and can't go with him. Do anything, but don't let him go with him. I would rather over react than under react and have the worst case scenario come true. Personally I would suspect the very worse case scenario and proceed from there.

Di

I'm not sure what exactly your situation is. Does the father still have any rights to visit your son? Can you just move and take your son with you without informing him? I think that would be the best situation but I don't know if you can legally do it. Also how does your son react to the situation? Do you think he wants to have contact with his dad?

Can't take him legally. I could file "Request for Preventing Abduction Order" with court. There are a number of boxes I can check, include (minimal)history of child abuse, domestive violence, uncooperative parenting, no strong ties to the area. But would this piss his father off even more? I come to a place where I careful about my every move and afraid of how his father will react.

If he's already making suggestions maybe that's worth trying. It's more likely he'll pass if he knows he's you're expecting that. Unfortunately if he's really a Psychopath there is no way to predict 100%. But I'd use whatever legal protection you have.