Divorce Issues: Child Custody and Visitation
One difficult and highly contested issue in divorce involves child custody and visitation rights. It is only natural for each parent to want to be guaranteed a relationship with his or her child or children, regardless of the marital situation. And in cases of child custody and visitation in an Illinois divorce, there is a lot to consider.
Below includes a list of common child custody arrangements, and the circumstances to which they are applied:
Scheduled visitation: These arrangements are made for the exact days a child spends with each parent, and this type of visitation is very common for parents who split custody of children. Children may alternate weeks between parents, have designated holidays with each parent, and even split visitation during winter and spring breaks from school. Denial and restriction of visitation: A court does have the right to deny and limit visitation at their discretion. Reasons for denial include past physical or sexual abuse, use of alcohol and drugs, and any other factors likely to endanger the children. All can force the hand of the court in these cases. Supervised visitation: Similar to the instance above, the court also can mandate that all visits be supervised by a social worker or a designated family member. Visitation and child support: If one parent falls behind on child support payments or stops paying all together, the custodial parent may not stop him or her from seeing their children. However, the custodial parent should contact an experienced family law attorney to recover support payments instead of using custody as leverage.If you are going through a divorce, have one impending, or even need to modify an existing divorce agreement for custody reasons or otherwise in the Chicago, Illinois area, the Law Office of Matthew M. Williams provides individual family law services efficiently and effectively to each client. With clients in DeKalb, Kendall, and DuPage counties, contact an experienced Aurora family law attorney at the Law Office of Matthew M. Williams, P.C. today.