What do you need to know about child custody and going to court? There are several factors to understand before engaging in a custody dispute. You might believe that a custody dispute is all about picking on the other side. It can seem paradoxical to believe what you see on TV about child custody disputes.
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In a real child custody dispute, what you see on television won’t be much use. The best person to ask about your odds in a custody dispute is your attorney. Your attorney is aware of what is critical to your case. A child custody dispute may involve subtle legal intricacies. There is a way to make your argument to the judge. a strategy for making your case in court. Your attorney is familiar with the approaches to supporting your position.
What are the relevant facts about child custody and custodial parents?
In 2018, 21.9 million children in the United States, or more than one-fourth (26.5%) of all children under the age of 21, had a parent who did not live with them.
Moms made up 79.9% of custodial parents or roughly 4 in 5 cases in 2018. But the data go further than that. Data shows mothers have more frequent access to their children. In more than half of those situations (51%) the parents also concur that the mother should have custody.
Parents resolve disputes among themselves in 90% of child custody cases. And they did so without a judge’s intervention. Judges in 13 states in the United States as of 2021 do not take the child’s preference for custody into account.
Here are relevant facts about custody cases in the State of Michigan.
In the State of Michigan, 497,344 children born to unmarried parents have a child support case. 91.6% of children born to unmarried parents had paternity established.
The Michigan Child Support Program served 830,023 children. These are children from 790,420 child support cases in the state.
The Michigan Child Support Program or MCSP collected and paid out over $1.3 billion to families. 78.7% of child support cases have an order requiring a parent to provide support.
The MCSP collected an average of $222 per child per month. These are children in custody cases who were owed support. 72.2% of support was paid in the month it was due. Collections of child support paid in the month when due totaled $956.7 million.
Reflect on these facts and statistics when you look at your custody case. You aren’t alone. You are also not a representation of those data. Your case is unique just as your concern for your kids is unique.
What are you fighting for in a child custody case?
The conflict will start if one parent demands exclusives. Each gives no quarter to get sole custody. This line of reasoning makes custody a contentious issue. Either parent—or both—of the parents—may be granted custody of the child by the court. Each parent, whether for love or leverage, would fight for physical and legal custody.
Making important decisions for your child is your legal right. You can make important decisions if you have legal possession of the child. Education, medical care, and religious upbringing are things you hope for your children. Whomever your child lives with every day is the person who has physical custody of them. You are fighting for the right to look after and guide your children.
Michigan statutes are not so clear on the term sole custody. The Michigan Custody Guidelines talk about this. A parent can have both primary physical and main legal custody when they have sole custody. The parent who spends the most time with their child receives physical custody. Important choices for the child are made by the parent who has legal custody. Decisions are made by that parent alone. Their childhood, health care, education, and religious upbringing are all included in this. For most parents, it is worth fighting for.
If you feel you can’t do this alone, you have the option for joint custody.
Joint custody
When one parent requests joint custody, the court must consider doing so. The court must provide joint custody if the parents agree to it. Unless it determines that it is not in the child’s best interests, courts must follow this rule. The official record must provide the reasons for the judges’ decisions.
Even in the absence of a parent’s request. Judges may consider joint custody. Judges are required to consider the parents’ ability to work together. Doing so while making decisions. On critical matters influencing the child’s well-being, the parents must broadly concur. Shared physical custody, joint legal custody, or both are all possible. It’s possible with joint custody.
Joint legal custody
Legal custody gives both parents the ability to make decisions for their children. On the child’s well-being, these decisions will have a significant effect. Joint custody is not impacted by how much time a child spends with each parent.
Joint physical custody
Each parent will have some time with the child when they have joint physical custody. It does not imply that the parents will share custody decisions. Both parents can have physical custody in a joint custody agreement. Summertime physical custody is granted to one parent by the court. There will be alternate holidays and weekends. The other parent then has sole physical custody of the child for the academic year.
Parenting time.
Parents may have strong feelings about their time with their kids. For some people, the battle for parental time can be fierce. Parents act out of love. Some do it to get an advantage. The court decides the outcome supported by law.
Orders about child custody and parenting time are governed by Michigan law. What is best for the kids is at the heart of state law. It provides standards for the court to use when making judgments. Gender is irrelevant to the law but parents will try to fight over it to get the best deal.
What do judges probe in a child custody case?
Effective preparation in any Michigan child custody dispute requires understanding. One of the things you need to understand is the established custodial environment or ECE. Understand how the established custodial environment and the burden of proof interact. It is the parent’s responsibility to show that a stable home environment exists. Demonstrating this helps to establish or modify the type of custody that is given to each parent. If you are unable to provide ECE, you can be certain that the other party is keeping track of it. In a custody issue, it can be used against you.
Judges consider the conditions of the child’s life whether an ECE is present. Are the child’s needs met by one (or both) of the parents? Those needs include love and affection, food, shelter, and other necessities. Is the kid old enough to have spent a lot of time in the place right now? The court will ask for evidence that ECE exists for the child.
The party requesting the adjustment must demonstrate evidence. The evidence must be overwhelming and persuasive. The evidence must show that the change is in the child’s best interests.
The judge will determine if there is no ECE. You must demonstrate this via the preponderance of the evidence. The court must know your proposed custody arrangement. You must prove it is in the child’s best interests.
If the parents are unable to agree, the judge will decide on custody and parenting time. The court will base it on what is best for the kid. When using this legal test, the court must take into account the 12 best interest factors.
Read our article “What Do Judges Look for in Custody Cases in Michigan?” to get more facts about how family courts make determinations on child custody cases.
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Goldman & Associates Law Firm is here to with information about Child Custody and Divorce in the State of Michigan.