Playbook

Tactical guides for the moments your case will be decided in.

Free reading, no account required. Most of family court is not won in the courtroom — it's won (and lost) in the texts and emails between hearings. These are the patterns and frameworks Compass was built around. Skim what's relevant. Bookmark what isn't yet.

All guides

Court prep

Going to court without a lawyer.

What to bring, what to wear, what to say. Cross-examination, evidence rules, and the eleven mistakes self-represented parents make in their first hearing.

14 min read →
Co-parenting

Talking to your kids about a high-conflict ex.

Age-by-age scripts (3-6, 7-10, 11-14, 15-18), the seven alienation traps to avoid, and when to involve a therapist.

11 min read →
Reputation

When they've turned everyone against you.

The all-purpose line, the three audiences that matter, and how to handle the in-laws, the school, and the friends who picked a side.

10 min read →
Reply frameworks

The BIFF reply.

Brief, Informative, Friendly, Firm — and the three rewrites that turn every reactive draft into one that survives a hearing.

9 min read →
Reply frameworks

Gray rock — and when it's actually the right call.

Give nothing emotional to react to. Why the technique works, when it backfires, and how to do it without looking dismissive in front of a judge.

7 min read →
Court prep

Documentation that survives a hearing.

The format judges actually read. Timelines, screenshots, naming conventions, and the four-column log that walks into court with you.

12 min read →
Recurring traps

The holiday-exchange ambush.

Why every Thanksgiving, Christmas, spring break, and birthday weekend turns into a fight — and the BIFF script that ends the cycle.

6 min read →
Court prep

What judges actually read.

Family-court judges look at exhibits for thirty seconds, not three hours. The shape of an exhibit binder that gets read.

8 min read →
Self-regulation

The 11 PM rule.

Your worst replies are written between 10 PM and 1 AM. The science of late-night judgment, and the thirty-minute pause that fixes it.

5 min read →

More guides coming. Have a topic you want covered? Email help@compassfamily.app — we read everything.

When reading isn't enough

Compass turns these guides into the reply you can send tonight.

Knowing about BIFF doesn't help when it's 11 PM and the text just hit. Compass writes the reply for you, holds it behind a cooldown, and copies cleanly into iMessage.

See the plans →