Family Cases Involving Children
Have you started a family and now have some questions regarding family law-related matters? When you hear the words “family law” you may automatically associate it with things like divorce, but this is not the case. You may need a family attorney on your side in many cases involving children and what is in their best interest. This can include things like establishing paternity, establishing custodial matters, and what rights others have as far as your child is concerned. Now you can find out more about these issues and how we can help you significantly when the time calls for it in these very delicate parts of your life.
Has a custodial parent in your specific situation decided to relocate with a child? This can make things much harder when dealing with child custody, and to make matters worse, it forces a parent to have a long distance relationship with a child. California requires that notice be given to the other parent of any plan to move away with a child for more than 30 days. (California Family Code 3024) If the non-moving parent does not consent to the move, it is likely litigation will occur. In general, if the parent wanting to move has primary custody of the child, the court will allow a move, unless the noncustodial parent can show the move is not in a child’s best interest. If litigation proceeds, the court will take specific things into consideration, such as whether the move is in the best interest of the child, the distance that the child is between both parents, the visitation schedule as it stands currently, and also whatever travel costs need to be considered.
Many circumstances will determine where a child will reside and when the other parent will visit a child after a divorce, dissolution of a domestic partnership, or general split-up. Something that is always taken into account is the best interest of the child.
There are different types of custody:
Physical and Legal Custody. Physical custody is usually awarded to the parent where the child will live most of the time, and legal custody applies to the right to make decisions about things in the child’s life like school, education, religion, and health care.
With a Joint Custody agreement, a child may spend an equal, or close to an equal, amount of time with both parents. Joint custody requires a high degree of cooperation between two parents, which may make matters difficult depending on your situation. There are many factors to consider when dealing with custody decisions, such as the wishes of the child, mental and physical health of child and parents, adjustment to school and community, and other important things to be considered.
When determining how much the child support payments will be per month, the court will generally look at the income of both parents, and the amount of time each parent spends with the child. . If a parent fails to keep up with payments, they may receive fines and even jail time. Speak to an attorney today if you want to get started on the child support process and find out if you are eligible for receiving these benefits for your child.
Rights for parents to maintain a visitation schedule usually come into play with child custody matters. The parents of the child may come up with a plan of parental visitation time on their own, however, if they are unable to agree, the Judge will make the determination as to a visitation schedule. Visitation schedules will generally include holidays, vacation days, and special days such as birthdays. If a child’s safety and well-being is at risk with one parent, a supervised visitation order may be made, whereby one parent may only see the child with a monitor watching, or the court may order no visitation to that parent. In determining a visitation schedule, the court will look at what is in the “best interest” of the child, including, but not limited to the age and health of the child, the emotional ties between the child and the parents, whether there has been any history of domestic violence, and the ability of the parents to care for the child.
