Today’s Articles January 18, 2012
- Methods in which the legal system decides Child Custody
A child custody proceeding is any case involving child protection, adoption, guardianship, termination of parental rights or voluntary placement of your child. The support order will be based on the child’s needs, obligor’s competence to pay, custody arrangements and the child support guidelines.
The Criminal Code makes it an offence to kidnap a child to spite a custody order. A custody order decides both the custody and parenting time arrangement for the children. Your child custody order is also confidential.
When an unmarried mother has a child, the mother has legal custody of that child until a court announces otherwise.During divorce, marriage, or annulment proceedings, the issue of child custody often becomes a matter for the court to ascertain. The Court system must look to the following factors in every child custody decision under the law regarding the best interest of the child. The court reserves the power to make alterations to the custody arrangements until the child turns 18 or is emancipated.
You may contest custody, child support, and alimony and property division by appearing in court and filing appropriate legal papers. At the hearing, the court shall hear evidence to settle whether the child custody and support determination should be modified. The fact that one parent has been the child’s primary guardian is often considered but is not enough to guarantee a custody award.
It is not that unusual for middle income parents to spend $60,000 on a divorce and child custody fight. Traditionally, divorce in the USA results in one parent being awarded primary custody and decision making for a child.
Each parent shares the rights and responsibility for the care, custody, companionship, and support of their children. Some states, such as Arizona, have fathers rights groups solely dedicated to helping fathers obtain custody of their children (arizonafathersrights.com for example).
Custody means that a father or mother has lawful custodial rights and responsibilities toward the child. Joint child custody means that both parents have the legal custodial rights and responsibilities toward a child. Joint custody allows both parents to have a say in the child’s upbringing.
There is no evidence to establish that a presumption of joint custody is in the greatest interests of children.
A study found that only when parents were still actively fighting did joint custody exacerbate children’s feelings of being torn between parents. However, when both parents favor joint custody, it can be a good solution for the children. Some parents have chosen a joint-custody arrangement in which the child spends an approximately equal amount of time with both parents. Some states award joint custody in which the judge simply divides the child’s time between the parents.
Joint custody does not mean simply alternating where the child resides from time to time. In fact, there may be legal joint custody, but the child may live with only one parent. Legal child custody includes the right to make decisions about the child’s education, religion, health care, and other important concerns. A child may be placed in foster care while a custody case is pending. Legal custody means the right to determine the child’s upbringing, including education, health care, and religious training.
Physical custody and residence means the routine daily care and control and where the child lives. Physical child custody is awarded to one parent with whom the child will live most of the time. In most cases, both parents continue to share lawful child custody but one parent gains physical child custody. There is also a presumption that it is in the child’s best interest to be in the custody of a parent over a non-parent.
Visitation rights allow the non-custodial parent (the person without child custody) time to spend with their child. A common arrangement is that one parent gets custody of the child and the other parent is given visitation rights.
A child custody evaluation is a report written by a neutral professional about you, the other parent, and your children. It is usually not necessary that formal psychological tests be administered to each parent in the context of a child-custody evaluation. The primary purpose and focus of the custody and/or visitation evaluation is to determine what is in the best interests of the child.
Comprehensive child custody evaluations generally require an evaluation of all parents/guardians and children, as well as observations of interactions between them. The children are also evaluated in a custody/visitation evaluation.
Because of the complexity of child custody matters and the importance of the outcome, it may be advisable to contact an attorney. The attorney should know several child custody evaluators or guardian ad items that they have worked with successfully. If you proceed with a child custody action without an attorney, you are acting as your own attorney.
In a child custody battle, there are rarely winners, frequently everyone is a loser, and the biggest losers are often the children.
For more advice on Child Custody Law, visit us at http://www.custodyrights.org/child-custody-laws.php
- My Child Custody Rights if I move interstate
Your initial thought after a long-term relationship breakdown might be to move as far away from your ex as possible – moving away from Texas and moving interstate – but this can cause all sort of problems if there is a son or daughter involved: emotional, social, and also legal problems!
Do not forget that the Texas Family Court considers the interest of the children to be the significant determining factor when determining custody, and a parent who removes themselves from the scene after a relationship breakdown is rarely regarded as acting in the best interests of the little ones.
Preserving some degree of permanence for your children through the upheaval of family breakdown is important, and you need to recognise that your child’s whole notion of ‘home’ is one that was developed from within that environment you set up when you and your former partner were still together.
consequently you should avoid relocating your children from the family home if at all possible, most especially in the early months after separation.
Continuing at your residence may be undesirable, particularly if you have friends or neighbors whose very presence reminds you of the pain of your relationship failure, and you may require the support of your family, who may live a long way away. Yet this is the home of your child home. And the ‘home’ is more than four walls and a bed. It includes friends, sporting clubs, and your child’s familiar recreational hangouts, all of which your child may need now more than ever!
If you are the parent you has been forced to leave the family home, this makes the concern of your address no less important, and you should consider very carefully about how to maintain a harmonious environment for your child when you choose where to live.
From a practical point of view, living closer to your spouse also means that a joint custody option is more workable.
By staying close to your child’s familiar companions, this also allows play-dates to resume in the familiar way, babysitting arrangements can be more easily overseen, as can the logistics of collecting forgotten clothes and toys from your child’s other home.
If you look to the long-term, you’ll realise that living near by means that you can better support the other parent with school pick-up’s where one of you is delayed, and in a variety of other practical matters. This all means more “regular” time spent with your little ones that improves the standing of both parents and the children.
And keep in mind that these issues are not simply personal family matters. They are also legal problems, and can play a crucial role in determining custody cases. The family court in Texas awards custody by resolving what is in the best interests of the child, and it is hardly ever going to be in the best interest of the little ones if one of the parents moves away interstate, particularly if they are planning on taking their children with them.
For more information on Moving interstate and Child Custody:
http://www.custodyrights.org