Stepparents’ Child Custody and Visitation Rights
When a marriage comes to an end, child custody is often one of the most hotly contested items throughout the divorce process. But what happens if there are stepparents/children involved? Does the biological parent always end up with his or her children, or does the stepparent ever seek and obtain custody? What about visitation rights of stepparents, or even stepgrandparents?
Study Finds that for Half of Children of Divorced Stepfamilies, a Strong Relationship with the Stepparent Remains Through Adulthood
A recent study found that the bonds created between stepchildren and their stepparents can last a lifetime even after the child’s biological parent and stepparent got divorced. According to one of the paper’s authors, Marilyn Coleman of the Department of Human Development and Family Science, “For a substantial portion of these children’s lives, they’ve been living with a stepparent, who, in many cases, became a parent to them.” When that strong relationship can be shown and proven to the court, there is a much greater chance of that stepparent being given partial custody or visitation rights. Coleman goes on to say that when “the couple breaks up, the family breaks up. . . what happens to these kids?
Stepparents may have invested a lot of time, a lot of emotion in raising a child and then end the relationship completely.” This emotional investment goes two ways: with the child and their stepparent. The bond is often so strong that it lasts through childhood and continues into adulthood, which was shown in half of the study group. Severing this relationship prematurely and coldheartedly through a court order can be traumatic for children of all ages, who seek regularity and routine during times of stress, such as divorce and the months and years of adjusting afterwards. Terminating a strong relationship between the child and their stepparent may be seen as not in the child’s best interest. Coleman finishes with, “Sometimes, there’s an assumption that when the relationship ends, there’s no need to continue ties. But for children who have grown up viewing someone as a parent, it may not be so easy for them to lose that relationship.”
Is it in the Best Interest of the Child?
It would be incredibly rare for the court to give a stepparent sole custody unless the biological parent has a history of substance abuse, mental illness, a severe disability, a criminal history, or charges of spousal or child abuse. Joint custody would be more likely, especially if the stepparent had been a father or mother to the child since a very young age. Visitation rights would also be a very tangible goal for a stepparent.
Call Powers Landreth PLLC Today
According to the Stepfamily Foundation, 1,300 new stepfamilies are formed every day. Many of these marriages come to an end. If you wish to seek child custody or visitation rights as a stepparent, or believe that your former spouse would not make a good guardian of your biological child, we at Powers Landreth PLLC are here to answer any questions you may have concerning issues of custody and visitation rights of stepparents. Contact our Charlotte family law team today for assistance.
Resource:
stepfamily.org/stepfamily-statistics.html
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Split Custody Agreements
You have likely heard of joint custody, where you and the child’s other parent share legal responsibility for the child and, usually, the child stays with you part time and the other parent part time. Split custody, on the other hand, is a situation in which your two (or more) children’s living arrangements are split between you and the other spouse. For example, your 10-year-old son may live with you while your seven-year-old daughter lives with the other parent. The court usually frowns upon split custody for a variety of reasons. The average North Carolina family that has children has more than one. In fact, the average is 1.75 for families that do have children, according to the Census. We understand that there are many ways that child custody can go, and split custody may or may not work for you and your children.
Sibling Relationship is Lost
With a split custody arrangement, the sibling relationship between the two children would be lost or severely limited. The children would likely not see each other very often, even if you and the other parent had visitation with the other child on the weekends or if their time together with the same parent overlaps occasionally. The North Carolina court usually believes that it is in both children’s best interest to live together and, if joint custody is an option, to move between the two households as a pair instead of individually. During divorce, or any time of despair or uprooting of normal life and routine, a sibling can be the most beneficial part of a young child’s life. According to The Only Child Project, and reported in the Huffington Post, “Without a sibling to share the burden or ease his pangs, an only child’s experience of divorce is significantly higher than other children.”
Split Custody Can be a Good Option if the Sibling Relationship is Already Very Strained, or for Other Reasons
While it used to be much more common to split up siblings a few generations ago due to possible financial strains that one or two of the parents might have, in today’s times this is remedied by child support. Although not a perfect system, due to the commonality of delinquent payments, child support negates the reason for split custody. However, if the sibling relationship is already at an unhealthy state and serious fights and arguments are frequent, there may be grounds for a split custody agreement. There may be other reasons to pursue a split custody agreement as well, such as a very wide age gap between the two children. For example, maybe one child is new baby set to live with the mother in a new city, while the other child is about to go off to college in a year and wishes to stay with the parent that is staying in the old home. There are many scenarios where split custody may be a viable option.
Call a Charlotte, North Carolina Attorney for Help Today
Our attorneys can help make split custody possible, or conversely, can help to ensure that split custody does not occur if the other parent wants split custody and you know that it would not be a healthy decision to make on behalf of your children’s well being. Contact Powers Landreth PLLC in Charlotte today to speak with an attorney.
Resources:
census.gov/population/socdemo/hh-fam/tabST-F1-2000.pdf
huffingtonpost.com/vicki-larson/post_2200_b_896909.html
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How Does the Court Decide Sole Custody?
Despite only one in six sole custodial parents being fathers, according to the Census, the court does not favor the mother over the father, or vice versa. In fact, the court makes the decision in favor of the child only. It seeks to find a solution that is in the child’s best interest. According to the North Carolina Bar, “the court must find that the custodian is a fit and proper person to have custody and that custody with that person is in the best interests of the children.” If the best interest is to grant sole custody to the mother, the court made that decision based on objective criteria, such as who the child’s primary caretaker was leading up to the divorce or separation, work schedules of either parent, care taking abilities of each parent, history of violence of each parent, home proximity to schools, proximity to grandparents or other potential caretakers, etc. In order to ensure that you are given a fair chance to show that your child’s best interests lay with you, do not hesitate to contact an attorney at once.
The Court has the Final Say
While the legal assistance of an experienced attorney is unparalleled in terms of importance to your case, a judge will make the final decision regarding your child’s custody care. Because of this, it is vital to show how living with you or allowing you to have legal decision making capabilities is in the child’s best interest. What do North Carolina courts look to when deciding custody matters? All of the following criteria are thoroughly examined, in regards to each parent’s:
- Physical health;
- Mental health;
- Work constraints;
- Care taking abilities;
- Care taking history with the child;
- Domestic violence or abuse history;
- Alcohol or drug abuse history;
- Home proximity to schools and other family members; and
- Much more. If the child is old enough, the child can have a say as well.
What Can an Attorney do for You?
The difference between an experienced attorney and a sub-par attorney is vast, and not something you want to experiment with in something as important as child custody. A good attorney can provide honest answers to your questions and help you achieve high but realistic goals, all the while by keeping up excellent communication. It is important that your attorney has dealt specifically with cases like yours before. For example, are you ending a same-sex marriage, or is there anything else that presents a potentially more complex child custody case than normal? Be sure to ask each attorney you meet with about these questions and more before you agree to let them represent you.
Call a Charlotte, North Carolina Child Custody Attorney Today
Divorce and separation are tough on everyone, especially children. The possibility that they will no longer see one parent as much as the other can be especially traumatic. During this difficult and tumultuous process, it is imperative that your legal counsel has vast experience dealing with all types of child custody disputes. Nothing will catch our attorneys off guard during their pursuit to grant you the custody or visitation rights that you desire. Make an appointment with one of our Charlotte, North Carolina child custody attorneys today with Powers Landreth PLLC and learn more about we can help you.
Resources:
census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2016/demo/P60-255.pdf
ncbar.org/media/209956/child-custody-visitation-and-child-support.pdf
Learn MoreCustody and Visitation Rights of Non-Parents
According to PBS, 2.7 million grandparents are currently raising their grandchildren. Non-parents, such as grandparents, uncles, aunts, siblings, or other relatives, may wish to become a larger part of a child’s life after their parents go through divorce, a parent leaves, dies, goes to prison, becomes abusive, can no longer properly care for the child, or disappears. Grandparents and other third-party relatives, as well as non-relatives, are sometimes granted joint or even sole custody of children. However, this is usually somewhat rare and can be difficult to accomplish if you are up against the child’s biological parents or parents.
In the Best Interest of the Child
As with all child custody decisions, the court will always choose in favor of the child’s best interests. However, the court is often biased with its decision-making, usually believing that, by default, the child’s biological parent or parents are the best choice for custody. Yet, a grandparent or other relative may be awarded visitation or custody rights in some circumstances in which that non-parent has a substantial relationship with the child. According to North Carolina code of laws § 50-13.2, a grandparent is defined as “a biological grandparent of a child adopted by a stepparent or a relative of the child where a substantial relationship exists between the grandparent and the child.” There is obviously quite a bit of wiggle room in determining what a substantial relationship is with such an ambiguous definition, which is why it is vital to work with an experienced and highly competent attorney.
Deciding Factors
When determining which party has the child’s best interests at heart and is most likely capable and probable of carrying out those interests, the following factors are looked at by the court:
- Ability to financially provide for the child;
- Relationship between the child and guardian;
- Guardian’s ability to provide love, affection, and attention;
- Proximity of schools and guardians’ ability to provide quality education
- Ability to provide child care;
- Stability of guardian;
- Possible blindness of the guardian;
- Physical and psychological fitness of guardian;
- Moral aptitude of guardian; and
- Past or future military deployment of the guardian.
Possible inexcusable factors, in the mind of the court, to allow custody to a biological parent over that of a grandparent or other close adult include the biological parent’s history or evidence of:
- Domestic violence;
- Sexual abuse or physical abuse;
- Illegal drug use;
- Alcoholism;
- Felony history;
Call a North Carolina Attorney Today
If you are a grandparent of the child, or another family member or non-family member, and you wish to have legal visitation rights or sole custody, it is important to discuss your options with an experienced Charlotte, North Carolina family law attorney. Call Powers Landreth PLLC at 704-342-4357 today.
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Child Custody: What Can the Judge Order?
Child custody can be determined one of two ways. The first way is through a separation agreement. This means the parties agree on an arrangement in a signed, written document. The second option is by a court order. If the parties cannot come to an agreement, the judge will decide the terms of child custody. The parties will put on evidence to show the judge who should have custody, when and why.
Once the judge has determined, based on the best interest of the child, where the child should live, the judge must then decide the details. What details? ALL OF THEM. The judge doesn’t simply write that the child should live with parent A, instead, the judge includes visitation schedules, telephone contact, holidays, summer schedules, drop off times and locations, etc.
When thinking about child custody, you must think about the details. The more details, the better the agreement/order. While details concerning drop off times and locations or phone schedules can seem excessive, it will only make things easier between the parties later. Agreeing on, or having the judge order, a phone schedule and limits to such phone contact can increase cooperation between parents and limit disputes over the matter.
If you have any questions about child custody, contact our attorneys are Powers Landreth PLLC (980) 237-4579.
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