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Parenting Articles
Joint child custody can refer to a variety of different things. There are several aspects of child custody that need to be addressed in a divorce situation. Understanding what joint child custody is requires you to understand some very basic ideas.
First, it is important to understand the differences between physical custody and legal custody. Physical custody refers, specifically, to where the child lives. If a parent has sole physical custody, it means that the child or the children live with that parent. It doesn’t mean that the other parent has no visitation rights, or that the child can’t stay with the non-custodial parent. Generally speaking, these sorts of visitation arrangements will be specified in detail during the divorce proceedings.
Joint physical custody, then, refers to a situation in which the parents share physical custody. This is to say that the child lives with both parents on a roughly equal basis. In some states, a child may stay with a parent as little as a third of the time, yet still be considered to have joint physical custody of the child. In some joint physical custody arrangements, it may be that the child or children stay in the home full time, and the parents rotate in and out of the home.
There is also the issue of legal custody. Legal custody includes the rights and responsibilities that the parents have toward the child. This includes making decisions about things like education, health care, and instruction in religion. When one parent has sole legal custody, then these sorts of decisions are up to just that parent. Even in the case when one parent has sole legal custody, here again the non-custodial parent may still retain visitation rights. However, it is likely that they won’t retain any other rights relative to the child.
Joint legal custody is the most common form of legal custody awarded by the courts. With joint legal custody, parents share the responsibilities for the child or the children in regard to those areas.
Posted in Child Custody |
When it comes to child custody, there are a lot of terms that can get thrown around. Often, it can be easy to misunderstand what exactly those terms mean. On the one hand, a term like “custody” has a literal meaning. If you have custody of something, it means that it is physically in your possession. However, few parents would speak about their child or their children as being a “possession” in the way that jewelry or a car might be a possession. Custody, as it relates to child custody, is a legal term, and carries with it very specific legal meanings and underpinnings that you have to be aware of to know what a phrase like “full child custody” means.
There are two specific areas that child custody refers to. The first area that child custody refers to is the area of legal responsibility and rights. Generally speaking, unless there is a compelling reason for the court to rule otherwise, parents will share joint legal custody of their children in a divorce. This means that parents both have the right and responsibility to make decisions for the child in important areas such as education, instruction in religion, and health care. When parents have shared or joint legal custody, both parents have the full authority to act on the child’s behalf in these areas. When only one parent has full legal custody, then only that parent has the right to make these sorts of decisions. Again, it is only in rare circumstances, such as when one parent has been convicted of child abuse or endangerment, that there would be sole legal custody.
The second area that child custody refers to is physical custody. Having full physical custody of a child means that the child lives with you a vast majority of the time. It does not mean that the non-custodial parent cannot see the child, or that the child cannot stay with the non-custodial parent. It just means that the child resides with you primarily. The non-custodial parent will still often retain joint legal custody even if you have full child custody in the physical area. In addition, the non-custodial parent may still also have specific visitation rights that you must, by law, comply with even if you have full physical child custody.
Posted in Child Custody |
Getting custody of your child in a divorce proceeding can be a rather tricky thing. Depending on how amicable the divorce is, you may have quite an uphill battle. Even if the divorce is a relatively friendly one, your former spouse is going to be acting in a way that will benefit his position. However, there are certain steps to getting child custody that, if followed, can greatly increase your chances of getting child custody.
The first step to getting child custody is that you want to hire the right attorney. You want to hire an attorney with the knowledge, experience, and training about getting child custody. You can get recommendations for an attorney from a number of places, including a family lawyer, friends, coworkers, and even your state bar association.
The next step to getting child custody is often one of the least pleasant. You need to identify your strengths, as well as weaknesses, as they relate to child custody. In addition to going through this procedure for your own strengths and weaknesses, you need to go through the same procedure for your former spouse. You need to be brutally honest, especially when looking at your own situation, as it is very likely that your former spouse’s attorney will try to use some of those weaknesses to weaken your case.
The final major step to getting child custody is to figure out exactly what you want, and what you will accept. If you want full custody, you need to identify that, and be prepared to make a case as to why you should get full custody. If you are willing to enter into a joint custody agreement, or if you are willing to negotiate on this point, you need to identify this for yourself and for your attorney.
While these steps won’t guarantee that you will be getting child custody, they are at the very least the minimum first steps that you will need to take. Without these things, you will have very little chance of getting child custody.
Posted in Child Custody |
Most states have very specific guidelines for how child support is to be determined by the court. For the most part, however, these guidelines tend to have some specific factors in common. The factors can include things like the income levels of each of the parents, for example. The guidelines for determining child support can also look at the issue of custody. Finally, there are often specific issues such as medical insurance and income taxes that can play a factor in how exactly the court will go about determining child support.
In many cases, the income of the parents is the primary guideline for determining child support. If one parent makes a considerable amount more than the other parent, that parent will very often have to pay child support to the other parent. Income is not the only factor, but the income levels of the parents will be considered in determining the amount of child support that is owed, regardless of the other factors.
Custody of the child is another important factor that child support determination guidelines generally look at. For example, if one parent has full custody of a child and the other parent has limited visitation rights, it is likely that the parent that has custody will probably not have to pay any child support to the non-custodial parent. However, when there is some form or another of joint or shared custody, the child support situation changes. Even if one parent cares for the child half of the time or more, it is still possible that the income levels might determine that that parent would still pay child support to the other parent.
Finally, factors like medical concerns, such as insurance, and other financial concerns, such as who gets to claim the child on their taxes, will generally play some role in determining child support, even if the state does not have specific guidelines in this regard. To know what the guidelines for determining child support are in your state, you should consult a family law attorney who has had training and experience in litigating child support cases.
Posted in Child Custody |
Child custody laws can really vary greatly from one state to the next. Some states have specific guidelines that the courts are instructed to follow when trying to determine who gets custody of a child, while other states have few or no guidelines that judges have to adhere to. There are few federal laws that deal with child custody. There are laws among the states that help to determine which state has jurisdiction in a particular child custody case, although not all of the states have even agreed to adopt this law.
Child custody laws are designed, in theory, with the best interests of the child or children in mind. Child custody laws, for example, may prohibit a parent from being granted custody if that parent has a history of child abuse or child endangerment. In many states, the law indicates that the preferred child custody arrangement is a joint custody arrangement, where both parents share both legal and physical custody.
To understand these child custody laws, it is important to understand the difference between legal child custody and physical child custody. Legal child custody refers to the right and the responsibility to make important decisions for a child. This would include decisions that relate to areas such as medical care, education, and general well-being. Most of the time, child custody laws aim for a situation in which the parents have joint legal custody.
Physical child custody is different. Physical child custody refers to the place that the child lives. When a child lives most of the time with one parent rather than the other, then that parent has physical custody. A joint physical custody arrangement is one in which the child or children may spend roughly half of their time with each of the parents. The child custody laws vary from state to state on joint physical custody, with some states defining it as roughly equal time, and others indicating that as little as 1/3 time can be considered joint physical custody.
Posted in Child Custody |
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