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A Bellevue visitation lawyer could help you fight for a fair custody and visitation arrangement that ensures you can spend quality time with your child and play a role in shaping your child’s development.
When you become a parent, your priorities shift. Your focus is no longer on just yourself. You want to spend as much time with your children as possible so you can watch them grow up. You probably also want to instill the values that matter the most in your kids. However, if you are no longer together with your child’s other parent, you might not be able to be with your child every day.
Schedule a free consultation to discuss your situation with one of our seasoned family attorneys at Twyford Law Office.
While determining visitation rights, a local court will also set custody arrangements.
Legal custody gives a parent or guardian decision-making authority over a child. People with legal custody can make decisions about their child’s education, such as choosing whether they will go to private or public school. They can also make decisions about their health care, such as when or if they will receive certain vaccines. Legal custody also gives people authority over religion and lets them decide if the children will go to church, temple, or any other house of worship.
Usually, both parents share legal custody unless there are extenuating circumstances, such as when a parent has not played a role in their child’s life or when a parent has a serious drug problem or mental illness. Most parents agree that both parents should have legal custody.
Issues involving physical custody and visitation are what most parents argue about. Physical custody determines which parent the child lives with primarily. If a parent has physical custody, the child lives with them most of the time and that parent is considered the custodial parent. The parent who does not have primary physical custody is the non-custodial parent.
Our Bellevue visitation attorneys help parents understand the different types of custody and work with them to protect their rights.
The non-custodial parent typically pursues visitation rights or parenting time, which allows them to spend time with their children. Rather than relying on the goodwill of the custodial parent, visitation rights give non-custodial parents legal rights and set times to see their children. Visitation rights determine how much time a parent has to interact with their children.
Courts can divide physical custody and parenting time between parents in different ways. Depending on circumstances, such as the physical proximity of both parents to each other and other factors, some parents share physical custody 50/50. In other cases, a child lives with one parent during the week and the other parent on the weekend, or a child could switch between houses on alternating days. Courts try to make custody and visitation arrangements that respect the parenting rights of each parent while also looking out for the best interests of the child.
If a parent suspects they could become a non-custodial parent, a determined lawyer in Bellevue could help them protect their parenting rights by pursuing sufficient visitation time.
Custody and visitation issues are probably the most important legal matters you will ever face. You want to protect and preserve your relationship with your children.
Let a Bellevue visitation lawyer at Twyford Law Office help you fight for a visitation schedule that works for you and your family. Call now.
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