Child custody is one of the biggest concerns when families are undergoing divorce. It is one thing to leave your spouse and have to deal with a life on your own, but it is even more difficult when you are involving children and altering the way they live their life. When it comes to determining the amount of child custody time you will have with your kids, emotions can be high. Your attorney is going to do everything they can to help you get the time you deserve, but in the end it is up to the judge to grant child custody time.
The big question is what is going to come into play and how does a judge determine your child custody time? We have a few things that are probably going to be considered when it comes time to decide on child custody that you can plan on coming up in the court system.
Experience
How involved were you with your children prior to the divorce? This is one of the biggest factors that is going to come into play when the judge is looking at granting child custody. Did you and your spouse share the responsibility of raising your kids equally? If your spouse has done a lot more in the years leading up to the divorce the judge is going to see those things.
You need to be sure that you explain your roles really well to your attorney. A family law attorney understands how important this aspect is and they can help you make sure that it is explained well to the judge. Do not sell yourself short in this category as it is one of the biggest factors.
Available Time
The judge is also going to think about how much time you can spend with your children. If you have a job that is going to make it difficult for you to be with your children during the week and they are going to spend the majority of their time at a daycare or with a nanny, the judge may take that into consideration when they are deciding how to schedule the children’s time.
These are only two of the more common things for a judge to consider when they are looking at how to split the custody of your children. They are also going to pay close attention to what the other spouse has to say as well as what the other witnesses think. They may also take into consideration how much money you make and how much child support you will be able to pay if you are not granted equal custody. Be patient and let your attorney represent you well. If you are patient and work well with your attorney they will get you as much custody time as a judge is going to grant to you. If you are not easy to work with and you do not follow the requests and suggestions of your attorney you are not going to see as positive of results.