“Timesharing” your children after a divorce can get dicey during school breaks and holidays. Work schedules shift, the kids are at home, and family events seem to occur every weekend (or more). Navigating child custody and visitation during this time can be challenging — here are 5 tips to help you get a handle on it.
It’s common for ex-spouses co-parenting on Long Island to disagree about many aspects of raising their child post-divorce. When it comes to your child’s education, however, the stakes are raised because their long-term future may potentially be impacted. Here’s how you can handle disagreements about your child’s education with your ex-spouse and how to get help from an experienced Long Island divorce lawyer.
First and foremost, it’s critical to understand who has legal custody of your child. It may be either you or your ex-spouse, or you may share legal custody. Be aware that legal and physical custody are not the same; if you have sole physical custody, you may still share legal custody.
In cases of joint legal custody, both you and your ex-spouse must agree on your child’s education. If you don’t, this becomes a contested issue that requires resolution either via mediation or litigation. If only one parent has legal custody, they can make decisions about the child’s education even if the other parent disagrees. (more…)
Deciding to get a divorce is difficult, and sharing a special needs child with your ex-spouse can exacerbate every aspect of the situation. Here’s how you can navigate dissolving your marriage when you have a child with special needs and how to get help protecting your family as you close one chapter of your lives and open a new one. (more…)
If you are divorcing or ending a relationship and you have a child or children on Long Island, you’ll need to come to a consensus about how you and your ex can co-parent your child/ren together in a healthy, effective way that ultimately benefits the health, happiness, and overall wellbeing of your child. This isn’t often easy, since each parent can have radically different ideas of what is truly in the child’s best interests. Here’s how to negotiate your child custody and visitation schedule on Long Island and how to get legal help to ensure that your rights are protected and exercised as needed. (more…)
The end of the school year on Long Island is around the corner and this can mean new child custody and visitation issues. This is especially true when your divorce attorney neglected to provide for summer arrangements in your custody agreement, perhaps because it was created before the child entered school.
Because legal issues can be daunting and expensive, many families choose to make alternative arrangements themselves until the kids go back to school in the fall. However, this may not be an ideal situation, as it can put you at risk for legal action to be taken against you. Here’s how you should handle summer child custody and visitation issues. (more…)
Knowing how to ask for provisions that your family will need both during the divorce process and after isn’t often easy. If you’re a parent going through the process of divorce, or even if you’re simply considering your options, you may not know where to start. The first step is understanding what you need in the divorce and why you need it. (more…)
Child custody cases and other types of family law cases in Nassau or Suffolk on Long Island often involve a guardian ad litem, a court-appointed attorney that looks after the child. If your case does, it’s important that you understand who this person is and what role they play in a family legal case. Here’s what you need to know about guardian ad litems and what you can do to get legal help for child custody and divorce cases. (more…)
It’s a fear many parents have when sharing custody of their child with their ex — will their ex kidnap their child? Will they refuse to bring them back at the appointed time after visitation? Will they take the child out of state? Parental kidnapping is a serious issue that is important to understand when you and your spouse divorce and you will be sharing custody of your child in some capacity. Here’s what you need to know and what your legal options are if your child is taken by your ex. (more…)
When the issue of paternity comes up in a family law situation, it’s important to understand the different types of paternity tests available and which ones are, and are not, legally admissible in a Long Island courtroom. Home paternity tests, in particular, are becoming more affordable, leaving many people wondering if they can use a home paternity test in a family law case. Here’s what you need to know about the admissibility of home paternity tests and other types of paternity tests that may be available to you. (more…)
Child custody is one of the most emotional aspects of family law on Long Island. Nassau County and Suffolk County courts do their best to facilitate meaningful relationships between children and their parents through various custody and visitation arrangements. However, there are some unfortunate instances where neither parent has the ability to provide the child with proper safety, security, love and basic necessities. Here’s what you need to know about how child custody is awarded in New York and in what situations it may be awarded to a non-parent.
