Now I understand, if you’re going to court over custody of your kids, or you’re looking at dividing up a marital estate, or you’re looking at a child support proceeding, these are all deeply personal. And I would be the first to say, I get that. And there are a lot of emotions tied up with these family court proceedings.

When you walk in, that courtroom is not the place to be emotional, especially not as a man. You want to deal with this in the same way that you would do it if you were buying a car or buying a house, a big dollar transaction. You want to come in and act professionally, not be angry, and not reflect a lot of outward emotion because it could be misinterpreted. And the other reason is, is it makes you less likely to think clearly, and you may do or say something you regret later.

When you go into court, these judges don’t know you, so they’re just getting to know you. They get a snapshot of your life. And part of how they’re going to form an opinion about the facts and about anything you testify to and who you are as a person is going to be based on your conduct in that courtroom. So it is really important to act professionally.

You don’t want to be trading dirty looks with the ex, trading insults, piping up out of turn, volunteering information on the stand that you weren’t asked about, or arguing with lawyers, or arguing with the judge, or making comments on decisions the judge has made that are not in your favor.

You want to sit there and act professionally, act like a businessman because your chances of a good outcome are made that much better when you act professionally.

If you’ve got a question about that for an Oklahoma family law attorney, I would encourage you to go to Dads.Law, where fathers are not disposable.