Child Custody Lawyers Near Me

Parenting arrangements are critical terms of every divorce that involves children, and post-decree parenting modifications are often sought by divorced parents. Additionally, parents who were never married often face these issues. 

Whatever your situation might involve, an experienced child custody lawyer near you can help you tackle the legal issue at hand while protecting your parental rights in the process. 

Parenting Issues in Illinois

In Illinois, the law divides parenting issues into parental responsibilities and parenting time. Parental responsibility involves who will be shouldering the responsibility of making primary parenting decisions for your children. You can share this responsibility, can divide it according to the category of decision that is being made, or can assign one parent sole responsibility. The kinds of decisions involved include:

• Decisions about your children’s education
• Decisions about your children’s religious upbringing
• Decisions about your children’s healthcare needs
• Decisions about your children’s extracurriculars

Parenting time, on the other hand, sets the schedule by which you and your children’s other parent will divide your physical time with your child. If one of you has the kids for the majority of overnights, he or she becomes the primary custodial parent. Alternatively, you can divide the overnights with your shared children more evenly. 

Parenting Arrangement Modifications

The parenting arrangements that you originally decided on may have suited your family’s needs very well at the time, but as the years pass, they can become far more impractical – and may have lost all relevance. You and your children’s other parent can negotiate modified terms that work for both of you between yourselves, but this will have no bearing on your court orders unless you address the matter with the court. 

As such, if your ex changes his or her mind about the modification suddenly and turns to the court, the original court orders will stand, and you will be on the wrong side of the court’s original ruling. If you are able to reach a modification agreement, the court is very likely to approve it, but if you are not, you will need the court’s intervention. 

Best Interest Factors

When the court is called upon to make parenting determinations, they are always based on the children’s best interests, and the following best interest factors apply:

• The preferences of each parent 
• Each child’s reasonable preference (as deemed appropriate by the court)
• Each parent and each child’s physical and mental health 
• Any special physical or emotional needs any of the children have
• How well each child has adapted to his or her current home, school, and community 

• The distance the parents live from one another and the cost and difficulty associated with visitation

An Experienced Child Custody Lawyer Near You Can Help

If you are faced with a parenting concern, the trusted Illinois child custody attorneys at SAM LAW OFFICE, LLC, have the impressive experience, drive, and legal skill to help. Your case is important, so please don’t hesitate to reach out and contact us for more information today.