When couples divorce, numerous critical personal, legal, and financial issues require resolution before a court or adjudicating body recognizes said split as official.
The process is often a trying and emotional undertaking exercising a major influence over those involved. Unfortunately, minor children are often deeply impacted by said events. It is for this reason courts stress the importance of parting factions working together to ensure the separation does not leave their offspring emotionally or mentally scarred.
Custody Agreements
Most states firmly encourage divorcing individuals to draft custody agreements. These legally binding arrangements lay the groundwork governing how certain aspects of a minor child's life will play out following the dissolution of their parents’ marriage. Specific matters may include:
• Establishing Custody Roles
Legal entities encourage splitting spouses with minor children agree to shared or joint custody. This means that each parent holds what is known as both legal and physical custody.
Legal custody gives parents the authority to render important decisions on their child's behalf. Joint physical custody means that children spend established time with each parent.
Sole custody might be awarded in instances where only one parent is mentally fit to care for their offspring. Additionally, courts might refrain from awarding any form of custody to parents possessing abusive or criminal histories.
• Avoiding Parental Alienation
Many divorces are amicable where separating parties remain on cordial terms and can agree on important issues. That said, some splits can be contentious and drawn out with both individuals harboring significant resentment and hostility long after their affairs are finally settled.
In such instances, adults might make the mistake of speaking ill of their former spouse before their children or engaging in actions geared towards inflicting some type of harm to said subject.
Divorce experts refer to this as parental alienation. Over time, the badmouthing or poor actions children are exposed to may influence said youths to adopt similar feelings about their estranged parent and ultimately limit communication with them.
Psychologists maintain that this behavior could have lasting and serious personal, mental, and emotional ramifications on impacted young persons. Ergo, the earliest and slightest manifestations of these issues should be addressed and worked out.
• Creating Visitation Arrangements
Even when parents are given shared custody, the youths in question will likely reside with one parent most of the time meaning they will live in said parent's home and attend school in that general location.
That said, well-written custody agreements will contain sections called visitation arrangements. These schedules govern where and with which parent children of divorced parents will spend periods, such as weekends, holidays, school breaks, and summer vacations. Additionally, these outlines will stipulate issues like transportation to and from each parent's residence.
• Pertinent Expenses
Separation contracts should also contain information regarding pertinent current and future expenses and instruction on which parent will bear responsibility for satisfying such debts. Common costs include health insurance and higher education.
• Important Decisions
Shared custody agreements typically give both parents the legal authority to offer input into critical decisions related to their child's health and overall well-being. For example, both mother and father will provide counsel into medical concerns, schooling needs, and any other issue the child is not yet old or wise enough to make informed decisions about.
• Child Support
Each parent is expected to adhere to their legal responsibility and provide financially for their children until they exit minor status. That said, the parent holding primary physical custody is usually entitled to a certain degree of child support.
However, the specific amount a court or authoritative body will award often hinges upon several key factors, such as the remitting parent's income, how many children require assistance, and the specific amount of time the youths in question will be spending with the parent providing primary care.
Negotiating Custody Agreements
As previously mentioned, most states urge divorcing parents to work amicably and establish a custody agreement they can both agree on and that, above all, best suits the interests of the children involved.
Reaching a fair and balanced agreement often requires significant negotiation. When entering this process, each faction is urged to retain the services of an experienced divorce or family lawyer.
When considering a custody agreement, the separating subjects should disclose all pertinent issues with their respective attorneys and allow their legal representation to negotiate each issue until agreeable terms can be achieved.
It is also worth noting that courts often have the final say in finalizing and accepting custody agreements. Said bodies will carefully scrutinize any arrangement to make doubly sure such contracts are most befitting to the impacted youths first and foremost.