What Factors Do Judges Weigh When Setting Parenting Time?

In Casa Grande, AZ, judges weigh certain factors when they decide parenting time and visitation. The law requires the judges to include certain factors, and a child custody lawyer can help you understand how to best present your case for a parenting schedule in light of these factors. The following are just some of the most important factors involved.

What Factors Do Judges Weigh When Setting Parenting Time?

1. Best Interests of the Child

The controlling factor is always what’s in your child’s best interests. If you can show that your primary consideration is also your child’s best interests, this will position you well with the court.

2. Relationship Between Each Parent and Child

The courts are also required to consider the relationship each parent has with a child. This includes not just the present relationship but also the past relationship and the potential for a future relationship.

Even if a parent has been absent from a child’s life quite a bit, that does not mean they don’t get any parenting time if there is potential for a future relationship. However, a parent should expect that failure to maintain a good relationship with their child up to this point will weigh against them in parenting time consideration.

3. The Child’s Situation

The court also must consider how the child is situated in their community, school, and home life. If the child is already well adjusted to a certain school, for example, and living with one parent would force them to change schools, the judge is unlikely to set a schedule that will require that change, all other factors being equal.

4. Other Family Members

The extended family can be important to a child’s development, so if a child has already established healthy relationships with siblings, grandparents, and other extended relatives, the court will look for a way to arrange things that can preserve these good relationships.

5. Everyone’s Health

The mental and physical health of both parents and the child are important considerations. If a parent has a health condition, that does not in itself keep them from having parenting time. But if there are severe issues of addiction, for example, that would be a different story.

6. Parents’ Attitudes Towards Each Other

The court favors parents who work hard to ensure their child has meaningful interaction with their other parent. Of course, this consideration does not apply if there are genuine issues of domestic violence or child abuse.

7. Abuse or Other Bad Behavior

If there’s been domestic violence or child abuse, the courts will not allow the child in any situation that puts them in danger. Other bad behavior by one of the parents can also be a factor, such as if a parent is intentionally misleading the court to cause delays or has made a false report of child abuse against the other parent.

8. The Child’s Preferences

If the child is old enough and mature enough, the courts must take their preferences into account, though their preference is never the primary consideration. If a child can articulate mature reasons for wanting to be with one parent over another, this will be an important factor.

Talk to a Gilbert, AZ Child Custody Lawyer Today

If you’re in a custody battle, we can help. Contact the Law Office of Vincent Mattioli in Casa Grande or GIlbert, AZ today to request a consultation.

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