My ex-wife is taking me to court to re-litigate child custody. We currently have a 50/50 arrangement. We've been doing this for the last 3 years with no problem whatsoever. Our daughter seems like a normal child, but has had some growing pains like any kid does as she is a pre-teen now. Sometimes she gets angry about having her behavior corrected, or scolded for failing school related responsibilities. My ex has filed a complaint in court seeking to remove my parental rights on the grounds that she's been verbally abused - an absurd claim! I think any outside observer would see that my ex has a terrific coparent who is agreeable to work with and does an excellent job raising this child.

My wife's new attorney is a young woman with a smug photograph on her website. Her reviews I can find online seem to be all positive. I am wondering - why would she do something like this? Why would an attorney want to separate a child from a competent, present father? I can understand if I were a delinquent, deadbeat dad - but that is not the case here. I can only conclude it is one of two reasons:

  1. She does not know the full story because my ex provided her an extraordinarily biased account of facts, or
  2. This lawyer is a special kind of scumbag

So attorneys... may I ask... what is likely going on here? In a case like this, what does the lawyer typically see and what is their thought process?