Whenever possible, it is best if parents can resolve their custody issues out of court. That doesn’t mean you have to go it alone and just try to hash things out. There are several ways to work together to create a parenting plan without having the court decide the fate of you children. You can negotiate informally through your attorneys. You can choose mediation, which involves a neutral third party. There is also collaborative law where you work with attorneys and other experts to reach an agreement that works for both of you in the bests interests of your child or children.
How an Attorney Can Help
Even though you are avoiding a court battle, working with a family law attorney helps in many ways. You’ll be creating a parenting agreement which will ultimately be submitted to the court for review and finalization. It becomes the custody order. Your attorney can guide you in understanding and fulfilling the necessary elements such as legal and physical custody, visitation time, how holidays will be handled, ad arrangements for regular communication between the child and the non-custodial parent. Each situation is unique, and your parenting plan should be tailored to your individual family.
Your child custody lawyer is invaluable in negotiations, keeping things from getting heated while looking out for you bests interests as well as your child’s. Custody negotiations are very emotional. It’s easy to either parent to overlook aspects that will hurt them in practice or to misunderstand how the terms of the agreement will play out in real life.
To learn more about keeping your custody negotiations out of court, please contact an experienced child custody attorney today.
