A family law attorney who attends to child custody cases helps clients negotiate cases where their children are involved. Most often, child custody attorneys in San Diego are brought in to negotiate agreements between parents who are separated, divorced or in the process of get a divorce. The objective is to help them make the right decision on where the children will live and how visitation of the non custodial parent will be handled. As long as there is a child or children involved, it does not matter whether the couples are married or not, if they are ending the relationship, the child’s best interests must be attended too.
Child custody is a term that is used to define how a child will be cared for and maintained. It makes no difference at all what the living arrangements were prior to the decision to split; it is invariable that there will be disputes at this time. It may happen that the parents are capable of coming to an agreement without any outside assistance, deciding where the children will have their primary residence and how visitation will be handled. Unfortunately, due to the stress of a pending divorce, child custody attorneys San Diego are often required to knock together an equitable arrangement.
The attorney represent s his client in determining where they child will have primary residence, in other words, which parent will have physical custody of the child. There are a number of ways this can be handled, sole and shared. In the event of sole custody one parent has physical custody of the child full time, in the case of shared custody the arrangement can be anything that is acceptable to the parents, 50/50 or anything else. When a parent is granted legal custody of the minor child, he is given the rights to make all decisions on behalf of the child that affect his or her medical care, education and upbringing.
In most cases the parents find it difficult to come to grips with the situation and they need a mediator to help them develop a plan that proves satisfactory to all. If child custody attorneys cannot come to an agreement then the dispute will be left in the hands of the court.
