Child Custody – How Does the Child Custody Court Process Work and What Do I Really Need to Know?

The first important premise here is that the parentsyou want. Make sure you setup your visitation
cannot come to an agreement. If parents can workschedule ahead of time and create that pattern
things out on their own, there is no need for thebefore you get to court. This way your temporary
courts to become involved. Often times parentsorder will reflect what you truly want. Temporary
wonder if there is a mandatory requirement thatorders often become permanent and here’s
they have a custody agreement if they don’twhy.
live together. The answer is there is no requirementMost people are required to go to mediation as part
to have an agreement. Child Custody agreements areof the process. If the issues are not resolved their
only required if they cannot agree.you could go onto evaluation, and trial. At minimum
The whole process gets kicked off by filing a motion,most people spend 4-6 months going through the
sometimes known as an order to show cause. Eitherprocess. If you are in a high conflict custody battle
parent can file this and then the rules begin. Thethen you can plan on 12-24 months to get through
parent who files must notify the other parent (therethe process. If your temporary order was a bad
are rules provided on the form you fill out). Then thedecision, you may have to live with it forever. You
other parent gets to reply with their own filing. Bothsee after 6, 12, 18, 24 months, courts do not like to
of them end up in court on an assigned date to startchange a child's routine. Now you would be stuck
the process.trying to make a change and restarting the process.
What you really need to know about this is thatSo if you can agree with the other parent or at least
when you fill out the documents for the first time,negotiate the big ticket issues you will be much
be sure you are organized and ask for exactly whatbetter off.