Child Visitation and Parental Rights in Illinois

 Posted on December 00, 0000 in Illinois family law attorney

One of the most difficult aspects of divorce is determining child custody and visitation. If you are considering divorce and have children with your soon-to-be ex-spouse, it is a good idea to begin to lay the groundwork for your parenting plan as soon as you begin discussing marital dissolution. Knowing what you want from a parenting plan before you go to court is crucial, as is working with a family law attorney. You and your ex will have different attorneys, and having a grasp on what you want to achieve in negotiation, especially when it comes to children, will only help to make the divorce process go as smoothly and painlessly as possible.

Sharing parenting duties, or developing a co-parenting plan is almost always preferable if possible. The DuPage County Family Center states that it always advocates for co-parenting, as it believes that it is very important for a child to have a relationship with both parents when possible. Sometimes this may require more than merely dropping the child off, however. In some cases, a parent may not be allowed, legally, to visit with the child on his or her own. This could happen if the parent is a drug addict, for example, or abusive; but even in such cases, the parent maintains visitation rights. Supervised parenting time services usually are required to submit documentation of the visit to the Court to ensure the safety and welfare of both the child and the custodial spouse.

Other considerations to make include the transportation of the child. According to the Southern Illinois University School of Law, the custodial parent is not legally obligated to bring the child to the non-custodial parent for visitation. Who transports the child is not legally regulated. If the custodial parent is denying appropriate visitation time with the child, however, he or she can be held legally accountable. In this case, a visitation enforcement order may be necessary. This is more common after divorces that were particularly nasty—if one parent has a vested interest in cultivating a negative view of the other.

Understanding your parental rights is essential if you are divorced with children. If you have questions about child visitation or any other family law matter, the most important step is to seek the counsel of an attorney. Contact an experienced Aurora family law attorney today.