Before embarking on a custody battle with your soon-to-be ex-spouse, you want to consider two very, very important factors. One, of course, is cost. Custody battles can cost upwards of a half a million dollars.

The other piece you want to think about is how well the custody battle affect your children? When you get into a custody battle your children are now involved in your divorce process. They are, at one point, going to have their own lawyer just like you have your own lawyer and your spouse has his or her own lawyer. And there may even be a mental health professional such as a psychiatrist or a psychologist who is trained in analyzing family systems who will interview your children, potentially – depending upon where your children are in life – friends of the children, school teachers, shrinks of the children, other people who are familiar with the family system, and come up with a report that then the judge will have to utilize in order to come up with a decision.

The question that you always want to ask is, do you really want to have your children that involved in your divorce process? Because at the end of the day, this is the policy of the state, is to promote the relationship of both parents with the children and try and make it as joint as possible.