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CHILD
CUSTODY There are different types of custody orders. Exclusive custody orders, sole custody orders and joint custody orders. Each gives one or both parents rights to make decisions regarding a child’s residence, health, education and welfare, as well as the physical residence of the child or children.
Let us now look at initial custody determinations and final custody determinations.
AFTER FINAL CUSTODY DETERMINATION
If a final custody decision has not been made and the divorce, legal separation or a paternity case is pending, the court may make an order that seems “necessary or proper."
The court’s focus is on the following:
(1) The court’s primary concern is the child’s health, safety and welfare. This includes concerns and issues about abuse by either parent, drug use by either parent, alcohol use and abuse and anything that may impact the child’s health, safety and welfare.
(2) In addition, a custody and visitation award must "assure that children have frequent and continuing contact with both parents after the parents have separated or dissolved their marriage, or ended their relationship, and to encourage parents to share the rights and responsibilities of child rearing in order to effect this policy." The only exception to this rule is when making such an order would not be in the child's best interest.
A common question is whether or not the court takes the child’s wishes into consideration. The short answer is yes but that depends on the child’s age and mentality. The court must consider the wishes of children who are of "sufficient age and capacity to reason so as to form an intelligent preference as to custody." There is no magical age when the court suddenly starts to listen to the child. What matters is whether or not the child is old enough to understand the issues about which he or she is expressing his or her wishes. Some courts, depending on the judge and the county, listen to children as young as 7 or 8, while others are far more receptive to children who are in their teenage years.
After Final Custody Determination
Once there has been an initial custody evaluation and there has been a judgment on custody, the “best interests of the child” standard that we discussed above may not enough to modify custody. California law states that in such situations, the parent seeking to change custody must show “changed circumstances” to modify custody. This rule exists so that the child or children can have a continuous and stable custody environment unless there is a compelling reason to change it. This is not a hard and fast rule. There are certain exceptions.
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