Child Custody Issues after Divorce

Parents often have many questions concerning custody of their children after divorce. Access and visitation are issues of concern as well. Custody has to do with the rights and responsibilities of caring for a child. This includes the rights of having a child living with a parent, rights to make decisions concerning the welfare of a child, and responsibilities towards a child’s upkeep. According to the law, unless otherwise ordered by the courts, divorced parents have joint legal rights and responsibility over their child, and are both entitled to child’s custody. Some of the common child custody issues after divorce include:

Rights of Parent

According to law, custody should take into account the child’s best interest. The custodial parent has a right to decide whether a child will receive religious instructions or not, choose the child’s school, and make medical decisions on behalf of the child, including surgery. In addition, the custodial parent has a right to make daily decisions concerning their child, including baby-sitting arrangements and any other activities a child should be involved in.

Who Gets Custody?

A parent or any other person such as a relative or friend can apply to the courts for custody rights. According to the law, the applicant should be someone seeking to parent the child and offer a stable environment. The right to custody is not based on age, as long as the parent is well capable of providing care. The judge may seek for an assessment from social workers to judge the situation on the ground. For older and mature children, the court takes into consideration their wishes

Deciding the Type of Child Custody

Another common divisive issue between divorced parents is the type of child custody arrangement. In Canada, there are four types of arrangements; namely, sole custody, shared custody, joint custody, and split custody. The sole custody, which gives all the decision–making rights to one parent, causes a lot of conflict between parents. The courts consider many things before deciding the type of custody arrangement, with the primary aim of providing the most stable and loving environment for the children. Some of these considerations include:

• The best interests of the child
• The wishes of the child provided he or she is over 12 years of age
• The primary caregiver before the divorce
• The parenting abilities of each parent
• Available support systems such as relatives or friends
• Sibling issues, especially in the case of split custody
• The mental, emotional, and physical health of each parent

Child Access

Another important issue after divorce is access. The court allows access for the well-being of the child, since each child deserves to spend time and receive love from each parent. The court grants different types of access orders, depending on the circumstances.

Reasonable access allows both parents to make their own arrangements concerning visitation. On the other hand, a court may set fixed or limited access for parents who do not get along with each other. In this type of arrangement, the court decides when, how often and how long the access visits will be.

In the case of a graduated access, the parent concerned has limited time with the child initially, but over time, the access increases. This arrangement allows the child to know and trust the access parent gradually. This type of access is perfect for people who divorced when the child was too young to remember.

Another type of access is the supervised access. A court orders this type of arrangement when it is worried about the safety of the child in the company of the access parent. It prohibits the access parent from spending time alone with the child. The court may appoint a member of the family or anyone else to supervise the visit, or order the visit to take place in a supervised access centre, in the presence of qualified staff.

There are many child custody issues after divorce. Parents should seek the services of a qualified and experienced Toronto family law lawyer to guide them through the process of custody negotiation.

Family law is a pretty big subject to deal with. Divorce law is a specialty of this matter and is what we deal with the most.