Custody and Visitation Lawyer
Custody and visitation cases are always tricky. The most important thing to remember is that the main goal of these types of cases is to determine what is best for the child. Having an experienced lawyer will help you navigate the complex emotions and legal workings of a custody or visitation case and help resolve things as justly and efficiently as possible, minimizing trauma for your child. If you are in the middle of a divorce or custody battle, the information below will help shed some light on custody and visitation, but remember every case is unique and only an experienced lawyer can provide the legal advice you need. To schedule a FREE consultation to review your custody or visitation case, click the button below.
Custody and Visitation Lawyer in Bentonville, AR
Custody and visitation are not generally used interchangeably for the simple reason that they have two very different meanings. Custody is defined as the care, possession, or control of a person or thing, in the circumstances being used here it is referred to as the care, control, guardianship, and maintenance of a child.
Visitation is defined as a formal visit between a child and his or her non-custodial parent, as permitted by a court order granting visitation rights. As a parent who does not hold custody of their children, they have the right to maintain a relationship with their children regardless of the custodial parent’s wishes.
Custody
Legal custody refers to legal authority when making major decisions on behalf of the child, examples of this would include the school, religious upbringing, and non-emergency medical decisions. Joint legal custody is an option available to the parents, where each parent would share the legal authority to make such major decisions for the child. Parents can share joint legal custody without having joint physical custody.
Physical custody is different than legal custody in the sense that legal custody is based on making decisions on the child’s behalf, while physical custody refers to the child’s primary residence. Similar to legal custody, parents can share joint physical custody, dividing residence approximately equal between the different parent's residence. Another type of physical custody is bird’s nest custody, where the children will reside at one residence, and the parents will rotate in and out on a regular schedule.
Visitation
A parent who does not have physical custody of their children is allowed to see their child(ren) regularly, different types of visitations include unsupervised visitation, supervised visitation, and virtual visitation. Unsupervised visitation is the most common type of visitation, where parents are permitted to take their children to their own homes or out during their scheduled visitation. Meanwhile, supervised visitation means that another responsible adult must be present at the time of visitation, while virtual visitation generally takes place using conferencing technology such as Facetime or zoom.
How is Custody Decided?
In the state of Arkansas, when deciding the custody of a child of a marriage, the decision will be made with no regard to the sex of the parent, but with the welfare and best interest of the child. If the child is of sufficient age and obtains the capacity to reason, the court may consider the preference of the child when deciding custody.