Laws on Child Custody take little thought at the start of a relationship or marriage. “Forever after” is not guaranteed by a marriage. Most people do not go into a marriage with an exit strategy in place. When children are involved it becomes more complicated especially if the parents cannot come to an amicable arrangement about who should raise the child. Once the divorce proceeding are underway or have been finalized, the issue of child custody has to be decided on in finality by the courts. Trying to understand Laws on Child Custody can be difficult. Understanding the basic principles of the laws might help.
The first thing you need to find out is jurisdiction and what that term means in your case. Certain courts can only mete out certain types of judgments. Each state will have its own set of Laws on Child Custody. So for instance, if the custodial parent moves after the custody judgment has been made then any infractions that follow should be referred to the original state. It does however create a situation where the parents can launch a protracted legal battle across states that have different laws on child custody. The non-custodial parent can file a suit against the custodial parent for hindering him or her to exercise his/her rights to see the children as per court decree. In some States a warrant (for unlawful removal or “kidnapping”) can actually be served on the custodial parent who’s moved away with the children. Jurisdiction in laws on child custody remains with the state from which custody was granted.
Laws on Child Custody – Visitation
Custody and visitation are two separate things and thus the laws on child custody will be different from state to state. Visitation rights are enforceable by law, especially if the decree was made in a court of law in the course of spelling out the terms of the custody judgment. Visitation rights can be agreed on, and depending on the parents, could be anything from a few hours a week, a couple of days, or a couple of months that children get to spend in the company of their non-custodial parent. This can be supervised or unsupervised visits depending on the decree.
Cases where visitation rights are denied are those where the court believes the child would be in physical danger or be exposed to some negativity. But this is arbitrary, for instance you cannot be refused visitation rights for having a prison record, unless it had been for child molestation. Laws on child custody are meant to establish the rights of the non-custodial and custodial parent and make sure that custody is given to the one party that will serve the children’s best. It’s not a popularity contest or an indictment procedure to determine who wins over whom. At the end of the day, the children should be the ones getting a better deal.
The trend in laws on child custody is the joint custody arrangement that most courts make based on the reasoning that a child is better off having unimpeded access to both parents. The parents share responsibility for their children and even get to share the tax benefits equitably.
Laws on Child Custody – Rights of the Father
Most of the time the mother is awarded custody but, the laws on child custody do not entirely disregard the father as a better parent. When a court awards sole legal and physical custody to one parent, the non-custodial parent is usually awarded visitation rights. Fathers often fear biased in favor of mothers because of traditional roles that are fostered on women and men. Even single fathers seeking custody of their children in cases where they were never married to the child’s mother face an uphill battle. It’s a battle that can be won, but it can only be won if the appellant in the custody case can prove that having custody of the child is in the best interest of the child.
Laws on Child Custody – Sole Custody
When a parent is awarded sole custody it means that they get to make all the major decisions in that child’s life. They provide shelter, food and take care of the child’s health care, welfare and everything else that the child will need as it grows up. This means that the other parent can be completely cut-off from the child, have nothing to do with it or with how the child is being brought up. Laws on child custody are subject to interpretation. Divorce and separation can be traumatic for children who have had both parents in their lives. Such legal rulings are made in cases where the judge determines that it would not be in the child’s best interest to have the other parent in their lives. If there is not much respect or a certain level of civility in the way parents communicate with each other, children might end up being caught up in the middle.