My girlfriend received 50% joint-custody for her 2 children. The father is pushing for full custody and is doing ANYTHING he can to get it. He currently lives with his girlfriend who has 3 children of her own and they have 1 together, this means if he gets full custody they will have 6 children in the household.
The court ordered that the parents get the children for a week and must be returned on Friday at 5 pm. However, since they are going to school they can be picked up from the parent taking over custody on Friday after school. The 3 yr old gets off at 11 am, the 5 yr old 3 pm. The 3 yr old gets every other Friday off, and those days fall on the fathers time and so we cannot pick him up until 5 pm.
Now my question is this: Since the court ordered that the children be picked up after school by the parent taking over custody, does my girlfriend have a chance at losing her part of custody because now the father is getting more than 50% of custody because he gets them "longer"?
2007-09-23 15:36:36 · 3 answers · asked by Be Productive, Not Destructive 2 in Politics & Government ➔ Law & Ethics
Well if it matters, we live in California.
2007-09-23 16:11:11 · update #1
I think part of the confusion comes from your use of the word "custody." There's a difference between "custody," which in this case is defined as joint, and visitation or parenting time. In this case the question seems to be that because the father is commencing his parenting time and that may give him a few more hours than 50-50, whether that constitutes a change in custody, or whether consent to that arrangement would somehow waive the mother's rights.
The answer is absolutely no. As Coragrph correctly suggested it would be very unusual for a parenting plan to add up the hours and insist on an exact number of minutes (although I've had clients who insisted on such arrangements, and have negotiated them.) The Court only wants a plan that's in the best interest of the children, and is workable - one that won't end up with a constant stream of squabbles requiring judicial intervention.
Joint custody won't be affected.
2007-09-23 17:21:34 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
No -- custody arrangement like that rarely come down to the number of hours per week -- those are just a rough estimate.
And if the court had already ordered 5pm -- modified to be "after school" if the child attended school that day -- then that's the court order.
It's not a situation where she loses her rights if she doesn't protest. But she can revisit the order if the school schedule changes significantly.
2007-09-23 23:02:14 · answer #2 · answered by coragryph 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
That's a silly question. The answer requires knowing what state you're in for starters.
However, regardless of which state you're in, the issue will generally turn on (1) best interests of the children and (2) a substantial change in circumstances that exist right now.
2007-09-23 22:53:59 · answer #3 · answered by krollohare2 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋