Eden Prairie Child Custody Attorneys

Eden Prairie Child Custody Attorneys

If you are facing an issue that has to do with the custody of your children, it directly affects your parental rights and should receive the careful legal attention it deserves. Your rights as a parent are paramount, and an experienced Eden Prairie child custody attorney has the legal insight, experience, and compassion to help you protect those rights. 

Custody and Placement

When a couple with a child or children decides to separate, and they cannot agree on how to divide parental responsibilities, a child custody case is required to resolve the dispute in court. Custody cases are often part of a divorce process, but they can also include unmarried parents.

The State of Minnesota addresses child custody in terms of both legal custody and physical custody.

• Legal Custody – This refers to a parent’s legal right to take care of their children and to make primary parenting decisions on their behalf. This includes the right to make decisions regarding the child’s health care, education, and religion, among other things.
• Physical Custody – The right to make day-to-day routine decisions for the child(ren) and to determine where they will live is known as physical custody.

The Best Interests of the Children

When Minnesota courts make decisions about custody and parenting time, they always focus on the best interests of the children involved. The factors they use to make these determinations can include:

• Each child’s age and current developmental needs 
• Each parent’s current living situation
• How well each child has adjusted to his or her current home, school, and community in general
• Each parent’s wishes 
• The state of each parent’s current relationship with each child
• Each parent’s willingness and ability to support the other parent’s ongoing relationship with each child
• Each parent’s ability to provide a consistent and stable life for each child
• Each child’s reasonable preferences (if he or she is deemed mature enough to meaningfully voice an opinion)
• The mental and physical health of each parent and each child
• The amount of participation each parent has had in raising the children to date
• Each parent’s ability and willingness to openly communicate and cooperate with the other parent regarding the children
• Any indications that either domestic violence or child abuse/neglect is a concern
• Any indications that either parent has a serious problem with either drugs or alcohol

Finally, the court can take into consideration any factor that it deems relevant to the case when making its child custody and placement determinations.

Turn to an Experienced Eden Prairie Child Custody Attorney for the Legal Help You Need

Few things in life are more important than your children. The accomplished Eden Prairie child custody attorneys at Atticus Family Law understand how critical your child custody concerns are to you and your children, and they are committed to using the full force of their expansive experience in their focused efforts to resolve your case favorably. Your parental rights and your child custody case are important, so please don’t delay contacting us for more information today.