Does the child’s opinion matter? A minor has no say in this under Nebraska laws.
When you have children, separating from your partner of many years is not as easy as packing your things and leaving. Many parents in this situation wonder who’ll get custody of the children, without realizing they can decide this themselves. It doesn’t have to be like in the movies where parents fight each other in court, as all you need is to find reliable Nebraska child custody lawyers to help you figure out a parenting plan.
If the parents cannot stand to be in the same room and there’s no chance of them agreeing on anything, then, yes, it will be the judge who makes a decision, based on the child’s best interests. The problem is that you might not like that decision as the judge may have other ideas about the child’s best interests than you do.
Nebraska is considered a 50-50 state and the judges try to award joint custody as having frequent contact and a good relationship with both parents is in the child’s best interests. Only if a parent has been deemed unfit will the judge decide on sole custody, restricting the other parent’s rights.
If at all possible, you should get in touch with experienced child custody lawyers in Omaha or whatever city you live in, and work on a parenting plan that both you and your ex can be comfortable with.
There are two things to decide—physical custody and legal custody. If you and your ex are able to work together as a team in the child’s best interests then you can agree on sharing the responsibilities and choose a joint custody agreement of your own.
Physical custody refers to where the child is going to live. Sole physical custody means that one of the parents will be the custodial parent and the child will spend most of its time with them. The other parent will have visitation rights and you can work out a schedule to include overnight stays, alternate weekends visits, or how to split the holidays so both of you can enjoy being with the child.
If the circumstances allow it you can choose joint physical custody and the children will spend roughly the same amount of time with either parent.
silhouette of child and adult holding hands; image courtesy of geralt via Pixabay, www.pixabay.com
Does this mean that you won’t have to pay child support? Not really, child support is a completely different matter and is calculated based on the parents income. Even if you have joint physical custody, you will still have to pay some form of child support if your income is significantly larger than that of your ex. Skilled child custody lawyers can help you agree on the financial details of the parenting plan.
Legal custody refers to which parent is going to make all the important decisions for the child’s welfare, such as education, medical treatments, religious upbringing , community involvement, etc. If you choose joint legal custody you’ll have to discuss all these issues with the other parent and come to an agreement.
Does the child’s opinion matter? A minor has no say in this under Nebraska laws. The judge might decide to hear the child out if they are of an age when they are capable of good reasoning, but they are not mandated to take their wishes into account when making their final decision.
If you can come up with a solid parenting plan, you can present it to the judge and they’ll probably approve it without modifications.
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