Child Custody
What is Child custody:
Child custody defines the legal and functional relationship between a parent/guardian and their child. The parent/guardian has the right to make decisions about their child’s upbringing. This includes the child’s physical and emotional needs, residence, healthcare, education, religious upbringing, and more. The parent/guardian also has a legal duty and authority to make decisions that affect their child’s upbringing.
Courts may get involved during separation, divorce, or child custody disputes due to conflicts.
Washington State defines legal custody as:
A judgment, decree, parenting plan, or other order of a court providing for the legal custody, physical custody, or visitation with respect to a child. The term includes a permanent, temporary, initial, and modification order. The term does not include an order relating to child support or other monetary obligation of an individual.
“Child custody proceeding” means a proceeding in which legal custody, physical custody, a parenting plan, or visitation with respect to a child is an issue. The term includes a proceeding for dissolution, divorce, separation, neglect, abuse, dependency, guardianship, paternity, termination of parental rights, and protection from domestic violence, in which the issue may appear.
Commonly Asked Questions
Basically, if you have children and are separating you will need a parenting plan. The plan helps parents decide child care, decision-making, and visitation schedule. Additionally, the plan should also address any concerns related to abuse or neglect.
You will still need a parenting plan.
This legal jargon may seem complex but it’s actually not. You may hear this acronym or phrase from your attorney or the court. This law was created to prevent parents from filing custody cases in other states to avoid local jurisdiction and/or legal orders. In short, it defines the child’s home state as the state where the child(ren) has lived since birth, or for the past six months before the custody case. In other words, this helps prevent a party from exploiting jurisdictional loopholes to file custody in other states.
Yes, there are various categories of custody. While those are provided below, rest assured our attorneys can explain their relevance and explain how they pertain to your situation.
This type of custody has nothing to do with where the child(ren) live. It has to do with the right and obligation to make important decisions regarding the child(ren)’s care and upbringing.
This type of custody concerns the daily care and primary residence of the child. In situations with joint custody, one parent (the “custodial parent”) usually has primary custody while the other parent (the “non-custodial parent”) has visitation rights.
This form of custody is typically agreed upon by a parent based on their schedules. The goal is to ensure that the children stay with the parent available to care for them. While joint custody aims to split custody evenly, courts may order “significant periods” for continuous contact. This is to guarantee that children have contact with both parents. Having an attorney is absolutely necessary for the agreement, and a parenting plan is a must.
This type of custody is when one parent is unable to provide a healthy and stable living environment for the child(ren). This may occur when one parent has substance abuse issues, engages in criminal activities, or is violent or abusive towards their child(ren) or others. Sole physical custody may also be granted when one parent prevents or manipulates the child(ren) against the other parent. There is a variety of ways the court could rule on this issue and even though a court can find sole custody they may still order visitation for the non-custodial parent, possibly in a supervised setting.
This type of custody was for people who are not the biological parents of the child(ren). This type of custody no longer exists in Washington state. The law has now replaced this type of custody with guardianships. If you currently have this type of custody you should consult with one of our attorneys immediately.
Warning: Any custody agreement must contain a parenting plan to be legally binding.
Having an attorney guide you through the application of the different types of custody to your specific situation is critical. Even if you and the other party are in agreement, it is necessary to have an attorney on your side to prevent you from accepting anything that may not be advantageous to you or your child(ren).