When co-parents live separately, they must arrange how they will care for their shared children. A judge must approve their plan and issue enforceable custody and child support court orders.
An experienced New Canaan child custody lawyer can be helpful when you are considering issues related to your children. A dedicated family attorney can explain the law, facilitate negotiations with your co-parent, and help ensure the plan you develop furthers your children’s best interests.
Connecticut General Statutes § 46b-56a requires the parents of minor children to create a parental responsibility plan. Ideally, parents create a joint plan they submit to the court for approval. When negotiating the plan, it is critical for parents to understand the meaning of certain words and phrases used in child custody proceedings.
Physical custody refers to the home in which the child lives most of the time. It can be joint, which means that the children split their time between their parents’ homes. In some cases, the children stay in one home, and the parents rotate.
Joint custody does not necessarily mean a 50/50 split—any division that works for the schedules of the children and parents can be a joint custody arrangement. Even when parents have roughly equal time with the children, one parent usually is designated the primary custodial parent for school enrollment and other official purposes.
A parent with legal custody has the authority to make decisions about the child’s religion, education, and healthcare. Joint legal custody is common even when the parents do not share physical custody.
If one parent is not interested in having legal custody or if one parent proves the other is unfit to exercise decision-making authority, the parent without legal custody typically still has a right to information. Additionally, a parent without legal custody can access a child’s health and education records unless the court issues an order preventing such access.
When one parent has physical custody all or most of the time, the other parent usually has the right to visitation, also called parenting time or access. Courts generally favor giving a non-custodial parent as much parenting time as possible.
However, when the parent without physical custody poses a potential danger to the children, the other parent can request that a responsible adult supervise the visits. A child custody lawyer in New Canaan can explain when a court might order supervised visitation and how it works in practice.
The law requires judges to prioritize the children’s best interests when making custody decisions. There is a presumption that it is in the children’s best interests to have a meaningful relationship with both of their parents and an expectation that parents will put the children’s needs and desires ahead of their own.
When parents seek joint legal and physical custody, the law presumes the arrangement is in the children’s best interests. If a judge determines joint custody does not best serve the children despite the parents’ request, the judge must provide a written decision stating the reason for denying joint custody.
The law describes numerous factors that a judge can evaluate when making best interests decisions, but the judge also has broad discretion to consider anything they deem relevant. A New Canaan attorney can ensure the judge has all the information that would support a parent’s custody goals for their child.
The judge might order sole custody with limited visitation if a parent can prove that one of the following is true about the other parent:
Sometimes, the court could order supervised visits between the parents and children. When parents cannot agree on custody issues, they can ask the court to appoint a third party to evaluate the situation, such as a guardian ad litem (GAL).
A GAL interviews the parties, the children and any relevant collateral sources, such as school administrators and doctors, and submits a report to the court stating what they recommend to be in the children’s best interests. Alternatively, a parent could ask the court to appoint a custody evaluator, who is a mental health professional with special training in child custody issues.
Involving a third party in custody disputes has ramifications that parents should carefully consider. A parent involved in a custody dispute should have a candid conversation with a New Canaan lawyer about how best to resolve the issue with the least impact on the children’s wellbeing.
For most parents, less involvement in their children’s lives is one of the hardest parts of living separately from their co-parent. Working with a New Canaan child custody lawyer can smooth the determination process.
Contact our law office to speak with a compassionate attorney when negotiating a parenting plan or having a custody dispute.