Parenting Plans – Custody, Access, and Parenting Time
We understand that custody and parenting plans can get complicated, stressful, and frustrating. Our office can walk you through the process and ensure your child’s best interests are protected.
When making an agreement or applying for a court order, the only consideration is the best interests of the child or children. A child’s best interests involves looking at all of their needs and circumstances. This could include a large variety of factors unique to your child’s development and each parent’s ability to care for the child. It could also include any concerns surrounding family violence.
Parenting plans typically involve allocating parental responsibilities, such as:
- Making day-to-day decisions and having day-to-day care, control and supervision of the child;
- Deciding where and with whom the child will live and associate;
- Making decisions about the child’s education and extracurricular activities;
- Making decisions involving the child’s health and providing or withdrawing consent for any medical treatment;
- Making decisions involving the child’s cultural, religious, or spiritual upbringing; and
- Exercising any other responsibilities or making any other decisions necessary to nurture the child’s development.
It could be that one parent is solely responsible for raising and making decisions for a child. Conversely, the responsibilities and decision-making power could also be shared between both parents. Sometimes, if there are two or more children, the parental responsibilities are split, so that each parent is entirely responsible for at least one child.
If a parent does not have custody or guardianship over a child, that parent may still be entitled to have access or contact. This could include visits and having the right to make inquiries and get information regarding the health, education, and welfare of the child.
It is not always easy to agree on a parenting plan and sometimes, the plan needs to change. In an ideal world, parents can work together to agree on a parenting plan and make changes as needed. However, raising children is never easy and the legal issues can get complicated. For example, if parents have shared custody over a child and one parent wishes to move away, the Court might be asked to choose one parent to have sole custody of the child.
At Jiwa Law Corporation, our family lawyers are highly experienced and will keep your children’s best interests at heart. Our litigators excel both inside and outside the courtroom. We work to avoid excessive conflict and legal costs by seeking collaborative solutions and alternative dispute resolution processes.
