Emotional Issues In A Palm Beach County Divorce Matter

For many years, like most other states, Florida had a joint custody law. The “joint” usually only referred to legal custody, or who makes important decisions for the children. In terms of physical custody, children lived with one parent and visited the other one. Today, Florida has a co-parenting law. This law presumes that children benefit when they have meaningful, relatively even, and consistent contact with both parents.

Residential Parent Designations

Judges use numerous factors to determine the best interests of the children. Usually, the three most important ones are the parents’ preferences, the child’s preferences, and the current informal arrangement.

Some parents directly express a preference during divorce or other family law proceedings. Many parents want to be residential parents. Other parents don’t want that responsibility. More frequently, parents indirectly, and often unwittingly, expressed a preference during the marriage. Many parents show little interest in birthday parties and other events in the life of a child.

Parenting Time Divisions

Roughly these factors apply to the parenting time. That’s the amount of time a child spends with each parent.

Generally, parents use the traditional every other weekend and every other holiday division. This arrangement is safe and familiar. Furthermore, judges often rubber-stamp these timeshare divisions. However, these divisions are complex. Families must keep a close eye on the calendar, and miscommunication-based disputes are common. Additionally, the timeshare division in a traditional arrangement is about 70-30 in favor of the residential parent.

Therefore, many families choose an alternative option. Block scheduling is a good example. Generally, children spend two weeks with Parent A, then two weeks with Parent B. This cycle remains in place the whole year, except for some minor adjustments around major holidays.

Block scheduling is simple. It also brings the timeshare division much closer to 50-50. However, this alternative arrangement, like most others, only works in some situations.

Reach Out to a Dedicated Palm Beach County Lawyer

Divorce and related matters almost always involve financial and emotional issues. For a free consultation with an experienced Jupiter family law attorney, contact Caroline Olson, P.A. We have several office locations in the Treasure Coast area.

Source:

leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0000-0099/0061/Sections/0061.13.html