Child Custody Anderson Associates Attorneys Schaumburg Illinois

b”Child Custody Anderson & Associates Attorneys Schaumburg Illinois
Child Custody – An Overview

The child custody and visitation landscape has changed. There is a decades’ worth of research on the impact of divorce on families to guide divorcing parents. At the same time, these couples face increased pressures from society and the courts to work together to solve custody issues during a time when they at their deepest emotional distance.

Divorcing parents need to learn the child custody and visitation options that are available to them and the legal standards applied to the different options. They need to balance that knowledge against an unflinching assessment of their ability to work with their former spouse to make a fully informed decision about their children’s future. Most divorcing couples are ultimately able to agree on custody and visitation issues without the need for a court order. Knowledgeable advice and representation from an experienced family law attorney often makes the difference in reaching a fair, mutually satisfactory agreement. When an agreement cannot be reached, success at trial may depend on the early involvement of a family law attorney with an established track record in contested custody matters.

Creating Co-Parenting Plans that Work

Whatever disadvantages there may be to sitting down with your soon-to-be ex-spouse to work out a parenting plan there is one irrefutable truth to keep you at the table: You two are the only people who truly know your children, their needs, the demands of all of your schedules and the relative strengths and weaknesses of each parent. By working together to make a plan that fits both your lives, you avoid a court’s cookie-cutter solutions. Hopefully, you also create a new framework for the active participation by each of you in the care and raising of your children. Remember, statistics show that parents who prepare a plan jointly are 80% more likely to comply with it than if a plan is imposed upon them by a third party.

To make a parenting plan that works, family and divorce experts recommend crafting a plant that is both specific and flexible. You should create a workable system for dividing responsibilities so that the plan can work whether parents get along well or not. You can rotate primary responsibilities where you both want a right to control or you can agree to delegations when you agree that one parent has an issue covered. Be sure to include terms requiring each parent to treat each other with respect in front of the children or when they can overhear conversations. Determine how future conflicts will be resolved and build in periods of review and adjustment-usually after the first year and then every two or three years thereafter.

Divorce Education

Each year, more than one million children see their families changed through divorce. Years of research has shown that the ongoing health and mental well being of these children often depends upon whether or not their parents are able to work together following the end of their marriage. In the past, a majority of parents failed to meet the challenges of raising children after divorce and both the children and society suffered. Researchers found that when parents stop communicating after a divorce, their children are more likely to have academic, psychological, self-esteem, and social problems.

The divorce education movement was founded in an attempt to address these issues. Therapists, mediators and other experts working in and around family courts began introducing parent education classes to divorcing families in the 1980’s. The programs they developed grew out of a belief that divorcing parents would do a better job raising their children following the termination of their marriage if they understood what impact their actions had upon their children and were taught alternatives to destructive behavior.

Custody & Visitation Dos and Don’ts

The one thing divorce doesn’t change is your status as your child’s parent. Whether you have a traditional visitation schedule or a flexible co-parenting plan, or whether your plan is temporary or permanent, you can make the time spent with your children as happy and productive as possible.

Balance flexibility and promptness. Try to be on time when children are being picked up and when children are being returned. It shows you respect your former spouse and your kids, and lets them know visitation is a priority to you. That said, being flexible about traffic, play dates and sick kids makes the time you spend with your children more like real life and less like something that is different from the rest of their lives. It also eases stress around transitions for your children.

Custody Evaluations: What You Should Know

If you and your children’s other parent have been unable to reach an agreement regarding your children’s custody status after the divorce, the family court judge deciding your case will probably order a custody evaluation. A custody evaluation is a process in which a mental health professional, usually a psychologist, evaluates you, your children and your ex-spouse in order to make a custody and visitation recommendation to the court deciding your case. Courts tend to give the recommendations the evaluator makes considerable weight in reaching the court’s final determination.

Custody Evaluation Basics

Depending on where you live, custody evaluations generally cost anywhere between $1800 and $6000, although some courts have lower cost alternatives. Though ordered by the court, the divorcing couple usually pays for the evaluation.