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Parenting Articles
A divorce is never a completely easy transaction. The fact of the matter is that divorces are almost always messy. When children are involved, a divorce can be particularly difficult. The decision about who gets custody of a child in a divorce is often left to the court, as the parents going through the divorce often cannot come to an agreement between themselves about who is going to get custody. It is important, therefore, to understand what the criteria are for deciding who get custody of a child in a divorce.
Who gets custody of a child in a divorce will depend on certain characteristics of the parents. The living conditions of each of the parents will be a factor, as will income and lifestyle. This process can sometimes even include home visits by an agent of the court.
The fact of the matter is that, very often, the court will award legal custody to the parent who has had physical custody of a child. Judges generally do not wish to disrupt a child’s life and routine any more than is necessary. Having said that, there are other factors that the court will look at in determining who gets custody of a child in a divorce. For example, if the child is old enough to decide, the court may factor in who the child wants to live with. Obviously, major factors such as abuse, drug use, illegal activities, or emotional instability may compel the judge to consider giving the other parent custody of the child in the divorce.
To better understand who gets custody of a child in a divorce in your state, it is important that you know what your state’s criteria are. Custody law can vary from one state to the next. Having a competent attorney that is knowledgeable and experienced with custody cases will be one of the most important aspects of helping you to get custody of your child in a divorce.
Posted in Child Custody |
There are several different kinds of child custody arrangements. When parents go through a divorce, they have the option of working out those child custody arrangements on their own. However, in many cases, they are not able to come to an agreeable decision. When this happens, the court will have to determine the child custody arrangement.
There are four basic kinds of child custody arrangements. They include joint legal custody, sole legal custody, sole physical custody, and joint physical custody. While the specifics of each kind may vary from one state to the next, the custody types do share certain characteristics.
To start with, there are two types of legal custody arrangements. Legal custody refers primarily to the rights and responsibilities as they relate to the child. These sorts of areas might include things like health, education, and general well-being. Joint legal custody is when both parents have these rights and responsibilities. Joint legal custody requires that the parents will be able to work together with one another for the benefits of the children. It also requires that the parents provide a detailed plan to the court about how the joint legal custody would work.
The other sort of legal custody arrangement is sole legal custody, in which one parent retains those legal rights and responsibilities. This is the most common sort of legal custody in a divorce. In this sort of custody, the non-custodial parent may still have visitation rights, but has few other rights in regard to the children.
There are also two types of physical custody arrangements. The first one, sole physical custody, is a situation in which one parent has the majority of contact with the child, and the child lives exclusively with that parent. With sole physical custody, the non-custodial parent may again still retain visitation rights. Joint physical custody is a child custody arrangement in which both parents have large amounts of contact with the child. While this doesn’t have to be exactly 50-50, some states do have very specific guidelines for joint physical child custody arrangements.
Your divorce or family law attorney may be able to help you further understand the kinds of chld custody arrangments in your state.
Posted in Child Custody |
The Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act is an act that was drafted by a commission that is dedicated to trying to make the laws of each state be compatible with the laws of the other states. The Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act was written in 1997, and has since 1997 been adopted and made law by a majority of the states in the United States. In fact, 45 of the 50 states have adopted the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act, as has the U.S. Virgin Islands and the District of Columbia. There are five states that have not adopted the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act, and they include Vermont, South Carolina, Massachusetts, Missouri, and New Hampshire. Puerto Rico has not adopted the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act.
The Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act gives jurisdiction over child custody cases to the courts in the home state of the child. The home state of the child, as defined in the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act, is the state that the child lived in with at least one of the parents for six months before child custody was granted. For children under six years old, this is the state that they have lived in since birth.
The Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act sets in place specific methodologies and procedures that determine how child custody cases will find their way into court proceedings. In cases where there is a question about where the custody proceedings should take place, the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act sets out a specific formula for deciding which state has jurisdiction. In addition, the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act provides rules for how jurisdiction might change, such as when the child and his or her parent or parents have moved to another state. The Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act prevents other states from interfering in a child custody determination without the original state determining that they no longer should have jurisdiction.
The Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act also provides an emergency order situation in which, when the child is in danger, a state that is not the home state can make a temporary order.
Posted in Child Custody |
The rules and the regulations that govern child support vary greatly from one state to the next. In addition, the specifics of how child support is determined is often unique to the situation, and is dependant on a variety of factors ranging from the parents’ income level to the specific child custody arrangement that the court has put in place. In addition, there are few federal laws that mandate that child support policies be the same from one state to the next. Even the statute of limitations on back child support can vary greatly from one state to the next.
The statute of limitations on back child support is often relative not to the date that the child support payment was due, but it is instead relative to the date that the last obligation is due. For example, if a parent owes back child support from when a child was six years old, that back support can be collected for many years after the child turns 18. In the state of Michigan, as an example, the statute of limitations on back child support is ten years past the date that the last child support obligation is due. So, using the previous example, the back child support from when the child was six could be collected 22 years later, all the way until the child is 28 years old.
In other states, there is no statute of limitations on back child support. This means that child support will be owed until it is paid in full. California is an example of a state in which there is no statute of limitations on back child support. In some states that do have a statute of limitations, it is possible for the statute of limitations to be extended through legal action. In other states, this is not possible at all, and once the statute of limitations on back child support has ended the obligation to pay the back child support has ended.
Posted in Child Custody |
When a couple who has children get divorced, one of the most difficult issues to address tends to be the custody of the children. There are any number of different child custody and visitation arrangements that a court may recommend, and there can often be confusion as to what the specific legal terms that the court uses can mean. It is important that the parties involved in this process understand the difference between child custody and visitation, as well as the various types of child custody and visitation that the court might decree.
Child custody refers to at least a couple of categories of things. The first has to do with legal custody. Legal custody means that a parent has the right and responsibility to make decisions that relate to a child’s health, education, and general welfare and safety. Generally speaking, the preferred arrangement is for there to be joint legal custody, in which both parents have the responsibility to make these types of decisions, and in which the parents are encouraged to not only make the decisions autonomously but rather to make the decisions together.
The second type of custody refers to physical custody. Physical custody refers to the child’s residence. If a child resides roughly half of the time with each parent, the parents have joint physical custody. In some states, this ratio can be as little as the child spending 1/3 of his or her time with one parent, and the rest of his or her time with the other parent. If a child resides the vast majority of the time with one parent, that parent will have sole physical custody, and the non-custodial parent may have visitation rights.
When a parent does not have physical custody, they may still have visitation rights. Visitation arrangements often proscribe a very specific schedule, such as the child or children spending the first and third weekends of the month with the non-custodial parent. IN some cases, a parent may only be allowed supervised visitations, in which visits with the child have to be supervised by the custodial parent, another adult, or even a professional agency such as a law enforcement officer.
Posted in Child Custody |
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