Child Custody and Parenting Time

Legal custody is the right to make decisions regarding your child’s education, medical care and religious upbringing. In deciding whether divorcing parents should share joint legal custody or if one parent should have sole legal custody, the parents should consider whether they can effectively communicate with one another to make important decisions for their child. If the parents are unwilling or unable to regularly and effectively communicate with one another, it may be necessary for one parent to have sole decision-making authority, or sole legal custody. Additionally if the parents have significant differences regarding their religious beliefs or differences regarding appropriate medical care it likely would not be in a child’s best interest for those parents to share joint legal custody. It is important to carefully consider these issues with your family law attorney when making decisions about legal custody.

While legal custody refers to a parent’s right to make decisions regarding a child’s education, religious upbringing and medical care, physical custody refers to how a child spends time with her parents. In determining the best custody arrangement for a family, it is important to consider a child’s relationship with both parents and how a child is used to spending time with both parents. The goal should be to try to allow a child to continue with what she is used to in regards to time with both parents. A joint custody physical custody arrangement does not necessarily mean that the parties will be equally sharing parenting time with a child. While it may be an exactly equal parenting time schedule, it may also include a situation where a child spends a significant amount of time with both parents, even if one parent has slightly more parenting time than the parent. Make sure you thoroughly discuss with your attorney your child’s experience and particular needs when considering the best custody arrangement for you child.

International custody disputes present some of the most complex and unique issues in family law. It is very important that you work with a family law attorney who has significant experience with these cases. The first step is to determine if the foreign country is a signatory to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. This is an international treaty that provides specific resources and remedies to help locate and return wrongfully abducted children. It also provides procedures for determining if a foreign custody order should be enforced by another country. The United States is a signatory to this Convention but the Convention will only apply if the other country involved also is a signatory to the Convention. The convention has very specific procedures that must be followed in international custody disputes so it is necessary to work with an attorney familiar with these procedures. If the other country involved in the custody dispute is not a signatory to the Hague Convention, it likely will be necessary to work with an attorney in the foreign country to determine if a U.S. Custody order can be registered and enforced in the foreign country.

A parent seeking to have his or her child returned to the United States needs to work with an experienced international custody attorney both in the United States as well as in the country in which the child is being retained. It is important to determine if the country in which the child is being retained is a signatory to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. If so, there are specific procedures that need to be followed to initiate the return of a wrongfully retained child. If the foreign country is not a signatory to the Hague Convention, then the parent will need to work with the foreign attorney to determine what other remedies or procedures are available to register and enforce the U.S. custody order in the foreign country.

A spouse who adopts the other spouse’s biological child during a marriage obtains the same parental rights to the child as the biological parent. This means that both parents are viewed in the eyes of the law as having equal parenting rights to the child. For all intents and purposes, the child is viewed as the child of both parents and the child has the right to be cared for and supported by both parents and to inherit from both parents. After the adoption, there is no distinction between the parents as both are viewed as the lawful parents of the child.

A parent who adopted her spouse’s child during the marriage can obtain primary or sole custody of the child during the divorce, as there is no presumption under Indiana law regarding which parent should receive custody of a child. Rather, Indiana law requires courts to make custody decisions based on the best interests of a child. The court will consider various factors, including the child’s relationship with both parents, which parent has served as the child’s primary caregiver, he child’s adjustment to her home, school and community, the physical and mental health of the child and the parents, and the ability of each parent to care for and provide for the child. If the adoptive parent has a close and loving relationship with the child, has served as the child’s primary caregiver, is physically and mentally healthy and can demonstrate that she is better able to care for the child than the other parent, it is possible that the judge would grant the request of the adoptive parent go have primary or sole custody of the child.

A parenting coordinator is appointed by the Court to assist parents in implementing and following a custody order. The main goal of a parenting coordinator is to facilitate effective communication between the parents. In assisting with communication between the parents, usually a parenting coordinator can help prevent conflict and can help to quickly resolve conflict between the parents outside of court. Most often parenting coordinators work with the parents to help outline a parenting calendar that reflects the terms of the Court’s order. Additionally, a parenting coordinator may help the parents make decisions about their child’s extracurricular activities, or about their child’s education or medical care. In working with a parenting coordinator, parents are able to minimize both financial and emotional expense as most disputes can be effectively resolved by the parenting coordinator outside of the courtroom. This allows the family to move forward as opposed to being stuck in constant post-divorce litigation.

The parenting coordination process in a particular case is governed by the terms of the Court order appointing the parenting coordinator. That order will contain specific topics for the parenting coordinator to address with the parties and will define whether or not the parenting coordinator can issue a binding recommendation on disputed issues. In general, most parenting coordinators will schedule an initial meeting with each party individually to learn the history of the case and to gain an understanding of the communication issues between the parties. The parenting coordinator will also ask each party to identify areas of conflict that the parenting coordinator can address with the parties. The parenting coordinator will then generally communicate with the parties via email or in person meetings to address conflicts on an as needed basis as determined by the parties. Most parenting coordinators will also work with the parties to draft and finalize a parenting time calendar for the upcoming year in an effort to prevent any disputes about the parenting time schedule.