AUBURN CHILD VISITATION ATTORNEY
AUBURN CHILD VISITATION LAWYER, Sara S. Thompson – If the parents are unmarried, parentage must be established before custody, visitation, or child support can be ordered by the court.
Paternity can be established by either signing a voluntary Declaration of Paternity or getting a court order. Generally, if either party has questions of the parentage of the alleged father, a DNA test may be requested, however, there are exceptions to this general rule.
Visitation: If your case is before a court on the issues of custody and/or visitation, you will typically attend mediation to try and come to an agreement concerning custody and/or visitation of your child(ren). If your case is in a “recommending county” and you and the other parent cannot come to a recommendation the mediator will make a recommendation to the court on what they believe will be in the best interest of the child(re).
Visitation Schedule: Not every case has the same visitation schedule, however, there are some common schedules. When the court makes orders concerning child custody and visitation, they are looking at the best interest of the child.
Some parents will have what is referred to as “reasonable visitation” where there is no set schedule that the parties follow. Other parents may have supervised visitation which can be done with an agreed to or court ordered 3rd party or a professional supervising agency. Some cases have court orders for no visitation with a parent.
Some sample visitation schedules are as follows (The sample visitation schedules are for reference only and may or may not be in the best interest of your child(ren)):
2-2-5 or 2-2-5-5 schedule: The child spends 2 days with each parent and then 5 days with each parent. An example of this schedule is as follows:
Parent 1 has every Monday at 8:00 a.m. until Wednesday at 8:00 a.m.
Parent 2 has every Wednesday at 8:00 a.m. until Friday at 8:00 a.m. and
they alternate the weekends (Friday at 8:00 a.m. until Monday at 8:00 a.m.).
2-2-3 schedule: The child spends 2 days with one parent, 2 days with the other parent and 3 days with the first parent. The next week switches.
Week on/week off schedule: The child spends 1 week with one parent and 1 week with the other parent. Usually you see this schedule for older children.
Every weekend: The child would be with one parent during the week and the other parent during the weekend.
Every other weekend with or without mid-week visit: The child would be with one parent every other weekend and a mid-week visit(s). The mid-week visit could be an overnight or dinner visit and could be every week or on off-weekend weeks. Some schedules don’t have a mid-week visit.
3-4-4-3 schedule: The child spends 3 days with one parent, and 4 days with the other. The schedule switches the next week.
If you need assistance filing a paternity action or assistance with child support or child custody and visitation in an already established paternity action, call the Law Office of Sara S. Thompson, PC.