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What Are The Deciding Factors In Child Custody Law?

Anyone involved with a child custody matter should understand how the law handles such issues. What are the deciding factors in child custody law? A child custody attorney will want you to focus on these 5 issues.

The Best Interests of the Child

Everything else in child custody cases will follow from this idea. This is the standard the court must apply in making decisions. Where a judge rules, the goal is to look out for the best interests of the child.

Notably, this means there aren't winners and losers in child custody law. This isn't like a criminal or civil case where adversaries square off. In fact, parties in a child custody case acting that way are frowned upon. Instead, the court will want everybody to focus on the best interests of the child.

Physical Security and Growth

Foremost, a child should live in an environment where they can sleep at night, feel safe, and have a place to sleep. As the child gets older, they should also have access to education and other personal growth opportunities.

Genetic Parentage

American child custody law focuses on the importance of genetic parentage. From a legal viewpoint, the genetic parents have the strongest claims to the custody of a kid.

The only exception is a genetic parent's conduct significantly harms the best interests of the child. Even then, a court will be open to a genetic parent undergoing counseling and parenting classes. Once the parent completes those, they may have to petition the court for reconsideration of the matter. However, if they can show their conduct has improved to the point it doesn't harm a child's best interest, the court will likely allow at least some form of visitation or partial custody.

Access to Family Culture

Courts also want to know that children will grow up in their family's culture. Generally, judges split the difference if there are notable divergences between custodial parents' backgrounds. Typically, a court will encourage the child to learn about each side of the heritage from the respective parent.

Similarly, a court will want children to have access to grandparents and siblings. This allows for some notion of grandparents' rights, but generally, these involve access and visitation. A court usually doesn't get into grandparental custody unless both genetic parents are unavailable or incapable.

The Child's Wishes

As a kid gets closer to adulthood, the court will weigh the child's wishes more. If a 14-year-old strongly prefers to live with one parent over the other, for example, a judge may grant that as long as the kid is asking for a sensible reason. Look into child custody law for more information.