The purpose of this study is to investigate what family law court secretaries take into consideration in investigations regarding custody where domestic violence and possible mental illness because of the violence are present. Since it is primarily women who experience domestic violence, this study chose to focus on the mothers parenting abilities and her possible mental illness. To answer the study's research questions and purpose the approach was qualitative and the method used was semi-structured interviews. Semi-structured interviews allow a more in depth and nuanced understanding of the social problem which is being studied. The result was interpreted by using thematic analysis and then analyzed through a theoretical framework, which was Marianne Hester's "Three planet model". The theoretical framework consisted of three planets which are called domestic violence, child protection and child contact. The results of this study show that family law secretaries struggle to discern whether domestic violence has occurred or not, since there rarely are any police rapport that supports claims of domestic violence. Regarding the mother's parenting abilities, she is considered not being able to fully parent the child, due to the domestic violence she has been exposed to. Furthermore, the results show that mental illness in investigations of custody focuses on whether the mother is still capable of raising the child. The results also show that mental illness is broad and difficult to define, since the spectrum for mental illness is quite broad.