Evidence 101: What Helps Your Case — and What Silently Hurts It

More cases are lost by what a self-represented party chooses to show than by what they never found. Sorting evidence honestly is a skill.

Evidence that helps

• Contemporaneous records — texts, emails, journal entries made when events happened, not reconstructed later.
• Documents from neutral third parties — school records, medical records, bank statements.
• Specific facts — dates, amounts, names. "On March 3rd he returned the children at 8:45 PM, two hours late" beats "he's always late."

Evidence that hurts

• Opinions dressed as facts. If you can't say how you know, the court can't weigh it.
• Cherry-picked screenshots that fall apart when the other side produces the surrounding conversation.
• Anything you obtained improperly — if it wasn't yours to access, it can damage you more than it helps.

The three-question filter

Before submitting anything, ask: Is it true? Can I prove where it came from? Does it advance my one-page plan? Three yeses, and it's in. Anything less stays out.