Custody and Visitation Schedules - Guidelines and Laws in New York

The state of New York takes domestic relations issues very seriously. Chapter 14 of the New York Consolidated Laws contains the crucial laws that govern domestic issues. Under this umbrella of laws, the state has included necessary guidelines and rules about child custody. These are the laws that govern how a mother and father should make their custody and visitation schedule, and also how that schedule is accepted and enforced by the court. It is absolutely necessary that a parent involved in a custody situation learn these laws and be familiar with them. Here is an overview of the rules that impact the custody and visitation schedule.

The Social Services Law in the New York Family Code specifies that the mother and father have an equal right to custody of the children. Neither parent is given a preference because of their gender, nor is either parent denied custody because of their gender. New York gives parents an option to have joint custody if that is in the best interest of the child. Joint custody means that each parent has substantial time with the children, but it doesn't mean that the parents have exactly equal time with the children. The mother and father also share legal responsibility of the children in joint custody.

The Social Services Law is very pertinent to parents who are setting up their custody and visitation schedule. The base of this schedule is the division of custody. Parents should select the custodial parent based on what is best for the child. If both parents want to be involved, joint custody may be the right option for them.

Custody and Visitation Schedules - Guidelines and Laws in New York

Chapter 14 gives the state of New York authority over child custody matters. This means that the state court can determine the custody and visitation schedule along with other custody arrangements. It is best if the parents can work together to make a schedule and submit it together to the court. However, if that isn't a possibility, this law gives the power to a judge to make the final decision. Each parent will have the opportunity to present a proposed schedule to the court and explain why it is in the child's best interest.

The state has specified that the judge must make any child custody decision with the child's best welfare in mind. Some of the factors the judge will consider when determining what is in the child's best interest are: the parenting skills of each parent, the role each parent played before the separation, the preference of the child, the relationship between the child and parents and siblings, if there has been a history of domestic violence, if the parents are able to get along, etc.

Once the judge has made a decision about the custody and visitation schedule, it becomes a legal document and is valid under New York law. This means that the parents must follow the terms and conditions in the schedule. Failure to do so can result in being held in contempt of court.

Custody and Visitation Schedules - Guidelines and Laws in New York
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Discover how Custody X Change can help you create the best New York visitation schedule for your situation, and get the help you need to make your New York custody schedule.

Child Custody - Can Anyone Get a Copy of a the Child Custody Order?

One of the greatest rights we have in the US is the right to a trial by a jury of our peers. Along with this right comes the responsibility of serving on a jury. Of course the reason this all works is because our judicial system is based on a model of openness and that openness allows court records to be accessed by the public as an assurance of keeping the system in balance.

While the court system routinely allows the general public unfettered access to court records there are a few exceptions. The court does seal records occasionally (usually in Criminal Court), but in Family Court they are normally available to view or get copies by anyone who asks for them. The exception being cases that have parents who had a child out of wedlock. This is done to protect the child from becoming ostracized by the public.

In order to view a case file or get copies of a case file you need to visit the Family Courthouse. Go to the Clerk's office and ask for the file by the names of the parties. The Clerk will pull the file (if it is still active) or will put in a request to have the file pulled from a warehouse if the case has been inactive for a period of time and contact you when it is available, normally 2-5 days.

Child Custody - Can Anyone Get a Copy of a the Child Custody Order?

Once the file is available, you can view the contents and get copies if needed. Before you view the contents the clerk may pull the Judges packet or other information that is considered private. There is no need to ask what was pulled as the clerk cannot share that information with you.

If you decide you want copies you will need to ask the clerk to make them for you (as the file may not leave the viewing area). It is common to have personal information redacted from the files to protect the information from being taken advantage of.

Child Custody - Can Anyone Get a Copy of a the Child Custody Order?
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Ed Brooks knows first hand how difficult "High Conflict" child custody battles can be. How devastating false allegations can be and the emotional toll they can take on both parents and children. He has created a forum http://www.child-custody-forum.com/ where parents can go to share their experiences, ask advice, and look for support.

Unmarried Child Custody Issues

What are the top issues unmarried parent's faces when custody is disputed? Unmarried custody cases can present some different child custody issues than divorce cases where the parents were married. Fathers who were not married are often fighting for the right to have contact with their child and establish custody and visitation rights. Unmarried mothers are often fighting to establish a child support award against the father. While unwed parents face many of the same custody issues married parents struggle with, there are some additional challenges in the unmarried custody case - specifically for the unwed dad.

Unmarried Child Custody Issues for Fathers
Who gets custody of the child if the parents were never married? In most states, an unwed mother will be awarded sole physical custody unless the father establishes paternity and commences action to be awarded custody. Until then, the father is often left with very little he can do to gain access to his child unless the parents agree to it. If an unwed mother denies the father access to his children the father will often need to establish access through the family court, which generally includes establishing paternity and petitioning the court for parental rights and waiting for a judge to make decision. A father who was not married to the mother of his child rarely ever wins custody over the mother unless mom is found by a court to be completely unfit. And for younger children, the chances are often even less. There is still a heavy bias that favors mothers over fathers, especially with younger children. An unmarried father usually at best can only take the necessary steps to gain unmarried child custody and visitation rights through the courts -- unless the mother is cooperative and agreeable out of court. The time and money involved for an unmarried father to gain rights to his child and to establish a parenting plan can often be extensive. Regardless, unmarried fathers should not be discouraged as more and more fathers petitioning the court for access to their children are being awarded joint custody with parenting plans that include the child living or spending a substantial amount of time with their father.

Unmarried Child Custody Issues for Mothers
With some statistics showing that most all child support cases involve the father paying support to the mother it's easy to see why it is also the case in unmarried child custody cases that mom's are often fighting to obtain a support award against the father. Generally, a finding of paternity is required in order for an unwed father to be forced to pay financial support of his child to the mother. Without a paternity finding by the court, it's often difficult and in some cases impossible to force an unmarried father to pay child support. Voluntary child support payments by an unmarried father without a finding of a paternity may not be enforceable. In other words, if an unwed mother is relying on voluntary payments by dad without a finding of paternity then she may find herself in a tough situation if the father decides to stop paying voluntarily.

Unmarried Child Custody Issues

Unmarried custody cases can present different issues than divorce cases involving children. Unwed dads are often battling for child custody rights while unwed mothers are often fighting for financial support. Whether you're the mother or father involved in a custody dispute, you'd do well to become educated on the subject of custody issues including custody determinations and modifications.

Copyright © 2009 Child Custody Coach(TM). All rights reserved.

Unmarried Child Custody Issues
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Child Custody Coach ™ supplies child custody information, online materials, and coaching services to divorced and unmarried parents faced with custody and visitation agreement issues. Steven Carlson, The Custody Coach™, is the author of the win child custody E-Book, "How to Win Child Custody - Proven Strategies that can Win You Custody and Save You Thousands in Attorney Costs!" Mr. Carlson's book has been reviewed by some of the foremost professionals in the field of custody, family law, and parent education.

Child Custody Mediation - What to Expect

It would be ideal if parents could agree upon child custody and visitation issues without outside intervention. But this is not generally the case, especially in highly contested divorce cases where the spouses' rivalry gets in between their ability to communicate in a civilized manner.

This is the reason why in so many divorce cases the best way to solve custody and visitation issues is by means of mediation. Mediation can be court ordered, in cases when the spouses can't relate, or it can be voluntary, when both parties consent to it. Mediation has proven to be a very successful tool in solving child custody and visitation issues.

The purpose of mediation is to help spouses reach a compromise regarding the care of their children after their divorce. Who are the kids going to live with? Who are the kids going to visit on weekends? Who is going to make the critical decisions regarding the children's healthcare, education and such? Bottom line, mediation is a fancy term for a meeting in which the main objective is to "find a happy medium".

Child Custody Mediation - What to Expect

Child custody and visitation mediation can consist of just one meeting or a series of them. These meetings take place before a professional negotiator trained in family law. The parents' attendance is required and so are their attorney's.

If the mediation is court ordered the court will either assign a mediator or request the parents to agree on one. In a voluntary mediation the spouses' attorneys negotiate who is going to act as mediator. Mediation conferences are generally held either at one of the attorney's offices, at the office of another attorney, at the mediator's office and sometimes at the courthouse where the divorce case is pending.

In a court-ordered mediation the parties are subject to the penalties of court contempt if they refuse to participate. In that case they would be subject to a fine, or even incarceration.

Before attending a mediation conference it is suggested that you do some homework. Bring your children's school and medical records. Also, bring the names of your child's healthcare providers, along with information regarding your child's appointments and extracurricular activities. If your child is ten years or older, it might be helpful to have a talk with them before the date of the child custody court-ordered mediation, so that you can voice their preferences or desires regarding who do they want to live with and how often they would like to see the other parent.

Should you and your spouse not be able to reach an agreement on the custody and visitation issues, the court will take over that responsibility and make the decision for you, regardless of what you, your spouse, and your children's preferences are. Mediation is a great tool to avoid a lengthy and expensive custody battle. Make the best use of it.

Child Custody Mediation - What to Expect
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For more resources and information on divorce and custody visit: http://www.FreeDivorceLegalHelp.com

Unmarried Mothers' Child Custody Rights

An unmarried mother may feel like she has less custody resources than a divorced mother. However, unmarried mothers should be aware that they have many legal avenues they can pursue to protect their child custody rights. Here are some of the custody rights that an unmarried mother has and ways that she can stand up for those rights.

An unmarried mother has the right to have the support of the child's father. Just because a woman never married the father doesn't mean that he has no obligations to the child. The first step to getting the father involved is establishing paternity. If the father of the child signed an acknowledgment form when the child was born or anytime after, then paternity has been established. If a father who has acknowledged paternity isn't helping with the child, the mother simply has to file for child support and child custody and a custody case ensues. The father will be obligated to pay child support, and possibly back child support. However, a mother should know that the father also has custody and visitation rights to the child. He may want to be more involved in the child's life and he is legally allowed to do so.

If a man hasn't acknowledged paternity, an unmarried mother can file a paternity claim. This is simple to do (look for details at your local courthouse) and it requires that the man take a paternity test. This is a simple DNA test. If the man is found to be the father of the child, he has the choice to sign an acknowledgement form. If he won't sign the form, the case goes to court. It is highly unlikely that a man won't sign the form if the DNA test if positive because he then has to prove to the court how he still isn't the father.

Unmarried Mothers' Child Custody Rights

Once the paternity has been established the father may be willing to work out a child custody agreement and may want to help support the child. It's great if both parents can work together to come up with an arrangement for custody and visitation. However, if the father is unwilling to work with the mother, she can file for custody and take him to court. This will guarantee that she gets child support payments.

There are too many cases where unmarried mothers don't get paid the proper amount of child support. If the father of your child isn't prompt with payments, don't deny him visitation (if visitation is part of the arrangement). These are two separate issues and it is better if the mother doesn't retaliate. Rather, the mother should go to court because the father is in contempt of court for not paying child support. (This is also why it's important to get everything sorted out legally and not just take the father's word that he'll pay. If the child support is a custody order there are legal repercussions for not paying.) There are also options of garnishing the father's wages to make sure he pays.

An unmarried mother should never feel like she has no child custody rights. She should learn as much as she can about the custody process so that she can protect her rights. This will help her raise the child in the best possible circumstances.

Unmarried Mothers' Child Custody Rights
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Discover how Custody X Change can help you stand up for your mother's child custody rights and also how it helps you work out unmarried child custody.

Child Custody Schedules - Ideas for a Holiday and Summer Custody Schedule

Child custody schedules often take into consideration non-school days such as 3-day weekends, thanksgiving recess, spring break, winter break, special holidays and summer recess. It is common for divorced parents to split the minor child's non-school days even in situations where the parents do not have joint physical custody and do not share custody on an equal basis during the school year. In cases where there is clearly a custodial and noncustodial parent, sharing the holidays and breaks or non-school days allows both parents to have a meaningful relationship with frequent and continuous contact with their children even though the parents are divorced and may no longer live close to one another other.

There are many different holiday and summer child custody schedules that can be implemented that allows the minor child to spend an equal amount of time with each parent. Each situation is unique so the best holiday and summer parenting plan for one family may not be the best for another family. The holiday and summer custody schedule should reflect what's best for the children and will typically take into consideration many factors including but not limited to the age of the children, relationship minor child has with each parent, work schedules, distance between parent's homes and more. This article provides example holiday and summer child custody schedules which can be modified according to your situation and what would be in the best for your children.

50/50 Summer Break Schedule
It's common for parents to share time with their children over the summer break. The summer holiday is usually the longest break during a school year. School breaks are often 5-8 weeks or 2-3 months between May and September. During the summer break parents can alternate weeks, alternate every two weeks, or continue with the regular schedule and add larger blocks of time for a vacation period with each parent.

Child Custody Schedules - Ideas for a Holiday and Summer Custody Schedule

50/50 Holiday Schedule
It's also common for parents to share time with their children on holidays. A common holiday schedule is where one parent has the child in even-numbered years and the other parent has the child in odd-numbered years for a particular holiday. Some holidays such as Thanksgiving Break, Winter Break or Christmas Break, Spring Break may be split in half each year or alternate years between parents. This depends on the family and what works best for the children and family dynamic.

Other Special Days
While courts often provide parenting guidelines which outline common days or holidays observed, there really is no set standard as each family may celebrate different holidays or have special days they observe. Parents can be creative and include any day they mutually agree on such as the parent's birthday, child's birthday, Halloween, 4th of July, etc.

With a little thought and creativity one can come up with a child custody schedule that evenly divides holidays, special days, summer and non-school days between parents so the minor child can spend an equal amount of time with each parent. Each family is unique so the type of parenting plan chosen and how the child spends time with each parent may vary between homes but should ultimately reflect what's best for the children and support and encourage a healthy and loving relationship with both parents.

2010 Child Custody Coach. All rights reserved.

Child Custody Schedules - Ideas for a Holiday and Summer Custody Schedule
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Child Custody Coach supplies information and one-on-one help to parents in the field of child custody and visitation issues, divorce, child custody evaluations, parenting and all divorce and custody related issues including child custody schedules. Steven Carlson, The Custody Coach is the author of the winning child custody guide "How to Win Child Custody: Proven Strategies that can Win You Custody & Save You Thousands in Attorney Costs!"

National Deadbeat Dad List

As you know that the children are the responsibilities of the parents. If due to some adverse circumstances as well as conditions, if parents get separation and live alone, then at this time their duty for children would become more significant. Both of them have the equal responsibilities for their children. Therefore, it is necessary to participate in child support equally by the parents. The parents in such cases take legal options in order to have the right judgment in their favor. However, some of the fathers do not want to support their child and thus categorized as the deadbeat dad. So, if you are the father who has divorced, then you have to face some legal orders by the court for child support. At this time you may have lot of the social pressure that would force you to be a responsible father. And you surely do not want to be counted as a deadbeat dad in the national deadbeat dad list.

If you are one who loves and cares your children, then you are totally opposite from a deadbeat dad. So, do not worry to have your name in the national deadbeat dad list. Actually, the father who abuses and neglects his children is generally called as deadbeat dad. However, court can also put those who are not paying their amount for child support regularly in the category of deadbeat dads. So, the person who disallows the court orders or tries to escape himself from paying the authorized order for child support is added into the national list of deadbeat dads.

Some of the fathers, who have the custody of their child but they would fail to teach the proper guideline to their child so that they can grow up well, also come under the category of deadbeat dads. The proper direction and guidance is very important for the children. Therefore, court passes such order under which the dads who have the custody of their children have to give them good education and proper guideline for their better growth and development. If the father fail to do so then he would also be listed in the national deadbeat dad list.

National Deadbeat Dad List

So, if you are the good father and do not want your name in the national deadbeat dad list then you have to do some measures. There are several guidelines available on internet that can support you to be a good father. As there are lots of child support attorney that can help you to give your best in order to support your child. In addition, you can also go to the child support counselors, so that you can learn the tricks to be a good and caring father.

National Deadbeat Dad List
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Katie Appleby is an accomplished niche website developer and author.

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