Child Custody Attorney Near Me

Child Custody Attorney Near Me

Child custody issues are common to divorce, but you can also face a post-divorce child custody modification or a child custody case related to children born outside of marriage. Regardless of what your situation is, however, the results will directly affect your parental rights, which makes working with an experienced child custody attorney near you well advised.

Addressing Both Legal Custody and Physical Custody

The State of Minnesota addresses both legal and physical custody. Legal custody determines who will be making the important parenting determinations moving forward. Physical custody, on the other hand, sets the schedule for how you and your divorcing spouse will divide your time with your shared children. Let’s take a closer look. 

The Basics of Legal Custody

Legal custody in Minnesota designates who will be making major parenting decisions such as the following:

• Where your children will attend school
• The religious education your children will receive
• Your children’s extracurricular activities 
• The health care your children receive

You and your children’s other parent can take on this responsibility jointly, or one of you can be awarded sole legal custody. Alternatively, you can divide this decision-making authority according to the kind of decision that is being made. Finally, those mundane decisions that parents face on a daily basis are left in the hands of the parent who has the kids at the time. 

The Basics of Physical Custody

Physical custody determines how you and your children’s other parent will divide your parenting time. While there are nearly limitless schedules that can be adopted, they all fall into one of two basic categories that include:

• One of you becomes the primary custodial parent with whom the children live most of the time (while the other receives a parenting time schedule).
• You and your children’s other parent divide your parenting time more evenly. 

Child custody determinations are always based on the best interests of the children involved, and these are predicated on factors such as the following:

• The effects of the proposed physical custody arrangements on each child’s unique physical, emotional, spiritual, and cultural needs
• Any special needs that any of the children have
• The reasonable preferences of each child – if he or she is deemed mature enough to voice an opinion.
• Any physical or mental health concerns either parent has – and the degree to which they could affect any of the children’s developmental or safety needs.
• Each parent’s past participation in providing care for the children
• Each parent’s willingness and overall ability to continue providing care for the children and to continue meeting their ongoing emotional, developmental, spiritual, and cultural needs 

Turn to an Experienced Child Custody Attorney Near You for the Help You Need

If you are facing a child custody issue, the compassionate child custody attorneys at Atticus Family Law in the Minneapolis area are well positioned and well prepared to assertively advocate for your parental rights and for your case’s best possible outcome. To learn more, please don’t wait to contact us today.