Veteran / first responder won’t take advice

I got out of the service and got my law degree. I didn’t serve long— just enough to pay for school. Because of that, though, and because my family is a military family, I’ve always had a heart for our service members and first responders.

Here’s where it got me the hardest…

I had a client— I can’t tell you much more than that for legal reasons— who was about to lose access to his kids. Part of me felt like he should have had custody… until he started acting out.

His ex-wife was a real piece of work. And she was vindictive.

But he kept doing things that hurt his own case. He would do things intentionally, such as—

•  Take the kids for custody swaps late.
•  Let her pull him into confrontations with her— in front of the kids or in public places.
•  Get him to promise to do things he couldn’t deliver upon (such as exchanging vacation times, picking them up from school when she was working, etc.).

She knew he would overpromise out of his duty to her and the kids. And, she knew she could pull him into an argument.

She kept “setting him up.”

He was already high-strung because he was a veteran and a first responder. He was constantly on edge, always about to snap.

In the end, he lost significant time with his children. I think it had a lot to do with that.

And, though I repeatedly gave him good legal advice, I still can’t help but blame myself for how all of that impacted him and his kids.