When it comes to family law proceedings, child issues are often contested. In this article, we will explain the relevant keywords and examine why child issues tend to be contested.
Custody
The Definition:
- This relates to according either parent the power and responsibility to make major long-term decisions for the child.
- Examples include: the child’s education (such as choice of school), medical issues and religious matters.
The Law:
- The Family Courts usually grant both parents joint custody of their child. This means that both parents are to be involved in making major decisions for their child. Joint custody grants reinforce the expectation for both parents to be involved in the decision-making process behind important matters that concern their child.
- Where a parent is seeking sole custody, they would have to establish that the other parent is unsuitable to have a say in the child’s important life choices. The threshold for this is high and often involves substantiating that the other parent has been extremely neglectful or abusive towards the child.
Care and Control
The Definition:
- This relates to according either parent the responsibility of taking care of the child on a daily basis.
- This essentially translates to which parent the child will be living with.
The Law:
- Typically, only one parent will be awarded care and control. This is usually the parent that has already been filling the role of the child’s primary caregiver, or the parent who would be better able to care for the child. Ultimately, the crux of the issue dwells in the child’s best interests for a particular parent to have care and control.
- There are instances where both parents can share care and control. What this means is that the child will effectively have two homes – one with each parent. Shared care and control is less common, as it requires a high level of cooperation between parents. The child must also be able to adjust to shifting homes on a regular basis, which can be disruptive to their daily schedule.
Access
The Definition:
Where a parent does not have care and control of the child, they will be awarded some form of access to the child.
- For the parent without care and control, this can be seen as according them the right to see their child.
- In cases where Parties have shared care and control, access will not be awarded as both parents will have sufficient time with the child.
The Law:
- Where possible, the Family Courts will seek to award the parent without care and control liberal or reasonable access. The underlying aim is to promote and foster stronger parent-child bonds. Accordingly, the access awarded also tends to include overseas and overnight access.
- It is only in instances where a parent is not yet capable of caring for the child during their time together, that the Family Courts will order that access be restricted and/or supervised. In such instances, the ultimate goal will be to gradually increase and/or commence unsupervised access until the parent without care and control is able to sufficiently care for the child.
Tendency for Contention
It goes without saying that just about every parent loves their child. When Parties are embroiled in custody proceedings, which are acrimonious and litigious in nature, it becomes easy to overlook that the other parent also cares for the child. Instead, a different style of parenting could be perceived to be “bad” or “substandard”.
Hence, Parties are each as likely to believe that they are the more suited caregiver for the child, and that the other parent should not have custody. During these instances, it is vital to engage the right Child Custody Lawyer who can provide you with an objective assessment of your case and guide you in advancing your best position forward.
