If you are going through divorce, if you have a child with your soon to be former spouse, matters of custody are extremely important. Those who find themselves in this position need to answer a variety of questions.
Most importantly, address the following: How do you obtain custody of your child? While this sounds like a simple question, there are many details to become familiar with. If you don’t take the right approach, it could hold you back from getting what you want out of the child custody process.
In most areas, family courts are responsible for deciding on child custody arrangements. But no matter where you live, the court is going to focus on the best interests of the child. This means many things, such as:
- If the child has a preference of which parent he or she lives with.
- The emotional bond between the child and parents.
- Any adjustment period the child has to make if asked to move to a new area.
- The age of the child.
- The financial situation of the parents.
While you may not be happy with the final decision of the court, it’s important that you are on board with the idea of doing what is best for your child. It is your hopes that the other parent feels the same way.
There is no sure fire way to obtain custody of your child, but there are steps you can take to put yourself in better position. From there, you can let the family court decide what’s best.
Source: FindLaw, “Child Custody,” accessed May 24, 2016