REMEMBER THIS

• The automatic preference for giving custody to mothers if the mother is minimally fit has been abolished. As a matter of law, fathers and mothers are supposed to be treated equally, although individual judges may sometimes be biased in favor of one or the other. Courts consider many factors when deciding custody, including: whether one parent or both parents have handled the day-to-day raising of the child; the amount of time the parents will have to spend with the child; the mental health of the parties; the special needs of the child; the preference of the child; and conduct by the parents that may have been harmful to the child.


• Joint custody or shared parenting is a common option. Parenting time or visitation with a child will not be restricted unless it can be shown the child will be harmed by a normal amount of parenting time or visitation.


• The U.S. Supreme Court has held that most court-ordered visitation for grandparents violates the parents’ rights to raise their children as they see fit. However, visitation for grandparents still may be possible in exceptional circumstances, such as when the grandparents have raised the children for a significant period of time prior to the children being back in their parents’ custody.