Why Do I Need a Child Custody Order?

A lot of people I speak to don’t see the need or they don’t have the desire to get a formal child custody court order. Often they say, “We have a good relationship and I don’t want to get the courts involved.” It may be true that you and your child’s other parent have a good co-parenting relationship but there are still several important reason to have a formal child custody order.

The first and most important reason for getting a child custody order is if/when the other parent will not give you access to your child. Most people think this type of thing will never happen to them, that the child’s parent has been working with them for months or even years with no issues. The key here is that it can happen, and often does. Maybe the two of you have a disagreement about who will have your child for the holidays or maybe you start dating someone new that the other parent doesn’t like. These are common scenarios where one parent will withhold access of the child/children from the other parent. An even more common and serious scenario for parents that have never had previous issues is when one parent decides to move out of state or farther away from the other parent. People can panic when they fear not seeing their children. It is not uncommon for one parent to pickup the child from school or daycare and take the child back to their home and then refuse the other parent access when they try to take the child back out of state or to their home.

Another good reason to get a child custody order is for child support reasons. Let’s say for example you have your child for five days a week and the other parent has him/her for the weekends. You may think that you have joint custody of your child so there should be no additional child support paid. However, the law says that child support is determined by how much time the child or children spend with each parent.   So four days verse three days of custody can make a big difference in how much money you are owed or how much money you will need to pay.

These are just a few reasons why a child custody order is needed in the first place. But what does having an order verse not having an order really change? The biggest thing is that if you are denied access to your child you can call the police and file a formal report about the incident. Often, by the police simply showing up, the other parent will give the child back to you. Otherwise, you can take your issue to the courts to gain access to your child again because the other parent will be in contempt of a court order. If you do not already have a court order in place, the police cannot do anything and the courts cannot do anything. You will have to go through the time consuming and lengthy process of establishing a child custody arrangement. This includes filing paperwork with the court, waiting for a court date (which can take at least a month) and getting the actual order from the judge. This means you could spend over a month without access to your children. It is better to get these things established just in case than being stuck in a bad situation where you can’t see your children.

Call our office at (980)225-1832 or email us at Info@DuncanLarsonLaw.com today to set up a consultation to discuss your child custody case.