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Factors to Consider
- What's best for your children depends on many factors.
- You and your spouse would be good candidates for joint legal custody if: Both of you are good parents;
- Each of you trusts the other to be a good parent;
- Each of you has the maturity to set aside the personal differences that gave rise to the divorce because your primary focus is on doing what's best for your children;
- and There is no history within your relationship of domestic violence or other control issues that would make joint decision-making difficult or impossible. The very worst place for children to be is at the center of ongoing conflict between their parents.
- willingness to share custody; fitness;
- child's relationships with parents;
- child's preference;
- ability to stabilize child's school and social life;
- closeness to parent's homes (primarily a factor during the school year) ;
- employment considerations (e.g. long hours, extensive travel, etc.);
- age and number of children;
- financial status
- benefit to parent;
- parents working together;
- best interests of the child;
- suitability of each parent as custodian;
- psychological, emotional, and developmental needs of the child;
- ability of the parents to communicate;
- prior and continuing care that the parents have given the child;
- wishes of the child;
- safety of the child;
- custodial agreements of the parents;
- history of domestic abuse
Additionally, the sincerity of the parties involved is important. The court will want to make sure that joint custody isn't being traded for concessions on other points. Another consideration is whether the grant of joint custody will affect any assistance programs.
Regardless of whether or not joint custody is appropriate for your case, please understand that parents can and should attempt to work together in most cases, even when one parent has sole custody. There are unusual situations in which the other parent is so harmful that your duty, as a good parent, is to protect your children from him or her. Fortunately, this is rare. In the vast majority of cases, children of divorce will do best when both parents take a positive and active role, and each encourages an ongoing, meaningful relationship with the other.
Currently, Welfare and Medical Assistance are affected based on the award of Joint Legal Custody. Be sure to check with your contact at any social service agencies before entering into an agreement or you may be jeopardizing your benefits. This list is not meant to be complete and the court will hear anything that they believe to be relevant.
We zealously represent the best interests of mothers, fathers, grandparents and other interested parties in custody controversies without putting children in the middle of the dispute. We are committed to providing the most effective level of service to each of our valued clients in a caring and compassionate manner. We handle child custody issues including adoption and stepparent adoptions.
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