If you have decided to get a divorce, it seems natural to move out of the family home. Many people assume that if you move out of the house, that you are relinquishing your rights to the home.

It might reduce the tension and it might feel better to be out of the home, but be aware that it could cause some problems too. Be sure to stop, think of the ramifications and consult your attorney before you make such a major decision.

For most marriages, the marital home is the largest asset. As long as the home was purchased while the couple was married, it is generally considered part of the marital estate and the value should be split. This may make it feel safe to leave, since so long as your name is also on the deed and mortgage, you don’t risk losing out on your share of the value in the home. However, moving out prematurely can lead to other financial complications.

If the primary earner (or whoever pays most of the utilities, mortgage and bills) for a household is the one moving out early, some states can institute a “status quo order.” This requires the party to continue paying the marital bills as they did before the divorce, which could lead the person to pay two sets of bills on the same income as they did for one. On top of legal fees, this can be a devastating financial blow that is completely avoidable if you just find a way to continue living in the marital home while the divorce is under way.

Moving out before a divorce is finalized can cause major financial problems, particularly if children are involved. Additionally, problems are compounded significantly when children get involved. When you are living in the same home, you have daily interactions with you children, but when you move away, you inherently have less time with the kids. It is imperative that you have an agreed upon, and preferably court ordered, placement schedule established prior to either party moving from the residence.

Without an official schedule, you could wind up in a situation where the first person to daycare or school gets the kids — which is a horrible position to put your kids. You are stooping down and playing dirty, but it becomes necessary just so you can see your kids.

Lacking scheduled and evenly split time with children can also lead to expensive payments and issues gaining fair custody after the divorce. If the parties do not agree on a temporary parenting plan and one party moves out of the house, they risk being denied parenting time, which will end up being a costly battle. Additionally, they can frequently end up stuck with child support payments before the divorce is finalized because they have less overnight time with the kids.

It is fairly common for someone to try and stay with friends or relatives while the divorce is being processed, that way they do not have to spend money renting another apartment or home. But this can be problematic if there isn’t enough room for the children to stay the night.

Once again, the person who moved out may not be able to exercise overnight stays because they don’t have enough room, which could hurt their chances for receiving equal custody and require them to pay child support unnecessarily. This can also trap them in the situation where they cannot escape: Now that they are saddled with support payments that could have been going toward a big enough apartment for a 50-50 custody split, they cannot afford their own place.

In most situations, it is safest to try and stick it out in the marital home. You won’t lose access to your possessions and records, you have already lived with your spouse for however long and it will be a relatively short time until you can securely leave once the divorce is finalized. Besides, maintaining contact and communication may help with negotiations to settle the divorce faster.

And if you do decide to leave, definitely consult your attorney and make any custodial or financial preparations before taking that step out the door — it could save you a lot in the greater scheme of things.

Steven W. Hair, focuses his practice as a divorce attorney, family law attorney in Clearwater, Palm Harbor, and Safety Harbor.

For more information, visit our website at www.FamilyLawClearwater.com
or call (727) 726-0797.

Your first thought might have been that maybe the court wouldn’t want you to sell the house until your finances are resolved. On the contrary. If you don’t have children and neither of you can afford the house individually, it might be easier for everyone involved to sell the house so that you can split the proceeds easily.

During the course of your divorce, you may find that there are certain advantages to doing so on a number of levels related to you and your case. First off, cash is likely hard to come by both for you and your spouse while the divorce is ongoing. As such, adding a little bit of money to your bank accounts could be a welcome relief in the midst of spending a fair amount of money on the divorce between legal fees, court costs and the like. Also, since your divorce will be coming to a close sooner rather than later you may choose to take the equity you gain from the sale and apply it towards a debt or towards the down payment on a new home.

Suppose that you have a large amount of debt elsewhere in your life. Maybe you opened up a business and financed the opening through making purchases on a credit card. If you were to sell the house during the divorce you would pay those debts before the divorce is over with. Your cash award from the home would be limited but you also wouldn’t have any debts to concern yourself with. This can be a great prize to aim for as you close out your divorce.

I think the most practical reason to want to sell your home during the divorce is that neither you nor your spouse can afford to make the mortgage payments on your own once the divorce has been finalized. It is probable that both of your incomes were used when applying for a home loan. The loan was offered to you with the assumption that your spouse’s income would combine with yours to result in a loaned amount that was affordable for your family.

Without the assurance that your spouse’s income would be available to assist in making the monthly mortgage payment it may be the best case for everyone to just sell the house. Even though you may feel compelled to try and make it work on your income for the sake of your kids, you are not doing them any favors by remaining in your home when you cannot afford the payments. Imagine what having to move out of your home under less than desirable circumstances could do as far as harming them from a consistency and stability standpoint.

You need to work out a new budget using only your income before you make a commitment to remain in the house. This budget should have your income at the top, the money taken out of your checks on a monthly basis for health insurance and taxes as well as the current mortgage amount or the amount you anticipate paying towards a mortgage refinanced into your name only.

Selling your home is not something that you should enter into without a great deal of forward thinking and planning. It is not only a huge responsibility to sell a house properly, but a lot of money is also at stake. Not planning where you are going to eat dinner tonight is not a huge deal. You can only “mess up” the situation by a few dollars here or there. However, the failure to plan in regard to selling your home could result in tens of thousands of dollar’s worth of mistakes (or more).

For instance, have you been putting off a key renovation of your home for some time? If so, now would be the time that you need to get that renovation done in order to maximize the value of the home. Contacting contractors, getting bids, obtaining a probable timeline of the work to be performed and then agreeing to all of this with your spouse is just the start of the planning process. Skipping over the details or allowing your spouse to take the lead on the planning could result at necessary steps being missed or incurring unnecessarily high costs when it comes to completing these repairs.

Something that you should consider doing early in your case is discussing these issues with your attorney. He or she will have experience walking people just like you through the decision making process associated with determining whether or not it is in everyone’s best interests to sell the family home during the divorce. If the attorney can work out the details with your spouse’s attorney then it can save you from doing so and experiencing the stresses associated with having this discussion with your spouse directly.

Deciding whether or not to hire a real estate agent to help you sell your home
This can be one of the most important decisions that you make in relation to selling your home during the divorce. Real estate agents do work on commission basis but their expertise in the area of home selling could cause your home to become an even more valuable asset for you and your spouse.

Unlike when selecting an attorney to represent both of you in the divorce, you all are able to select the same realtor to work with when selling the home. You do not each need to hire a realtor. The reason being is that unlike in your divorce, you and your spouse have the same goal in relation the home- getting it sold. Having someone in your corner to rely on for advice and perspective can be incredibly helpful.

The best thing you and your spouse can do before meeting with realtors is to do an informal analysis of the market and determine where you want to begin the asking price for the house and to determine what questions you have. Do not assume that you have all of the issues figured out in regard to subjects like this. Defer to the experts and you are more likely to achieve a successful result.

Steven W. Hair, focuses his practice as a divorce attorney, family law attorney in Clearwater, Palm Harbor, and Safety Harbor.

For more information, visit our website at www.FamilyLawClearwater.com
or call (727) 726-0797.

When you first started seeing each other, everything was a garden of roses. Life was good. Then, as time goes by, perhaps things weren’t so rosy. No marriage is perfect. But how bad does it need to be before you give up and file for a divorce? There are some things you should watch for.

Communication Issues
It is no surprise that one of the leading causes of divorce is communication issues. More specifically, a lack of communication can lead to separation and divorce. A couple needs to work as a team. They need to be able to come to each other for support and understanding. They also need to be able to talk about both the little and big things in life.

There should be room for arguments that don’t focus on who is right and who is wrong. If you and your spouse constantly feel at-odds and can no longer have conversations about things that matter, it may be a sign that it is time for a divorce.

Lack of Intimacy
What is another major sign that it’s time for a divorce? A lack of intimacy in a marriage can be a bad sign. Intimacy is an important part of marriage. It is the main difference between friendship and a romantic relationship.

There may be lulls or times when you need space, but if you can’t remember the last time you were intimate with your partner, this could be a red flag that the relationship is in trouble.

There is no Trust
Through life, your spouse is supposed to be one of the main people that you can trust completely. It is impossible to feel comfortable in any marriage if there is no trust. Many things can lead to a lack of trust including infidelity, lying, and disrespectful behavior. It is not a good sign if you constantly second-guess your partner or have trouble believing the things that they tell you.

There is Contempt
Contempt is a major marriage killer. It can range from resenting your partner to full-on despising them. Your mood may change from positive to negative when they walk in a room. They may criticize your every action or stop treating you like an equal. Whatever the reasons for the contempt, no marriage can last if these feelings of bitterness and anger are not addressed.

Cheating
If you or your spouse cheats on the other – it may be time for a divorce. Cheating can be both physical and emotional. In the age of technology, there are many more ways to cheat on a partner by using phones and the internet.

While some couples recover after infidelity, many do not. If your spouse has cheated on you it may be time to seek counsel and discuss your divorce and separation options.

Loss of Yourself
Some relationships can be consuming. At first, it is intoxicating to be with your partner. However, as time goes on, you may start to feel like you have lost yourself. You no longer have hobbies that you enjoy or you no longer make any time for yourself.

Maybe you feel like you are only staying with your partner for your children. In every relationship, you need to be able to still be “you”. The loss of self can lead to relationship problems and even divorce.

Toxic Relationship
A toxic relationship is one where the dynamic has changed and it is full of negative energy. Where you were once happy, now all you feel is dread or contempt. Some toxic relationships can even turn mentally, emotionally, or physically abusive. While toxic relationships might be worked on in marriage counseling, any type of abuse is unacceptable and should not be tolerated.

You Don’t Care
The marriage may be over and it may be time for divorce if you no longer care about the relationship. It means that you have already given up. This can happen after trying therapy and other actions to work on the marriage.

However, it can also happen without any effort to save the relationship. You may be dreaming of a different life that does not include your spouse. If you no longer care about your relationship and you have already given up, it is a sign that it may be time for a divorce.

Steven W. Hair, focuses his practice as a divorce attorney, family law attorney in Clearwater, Palm Harbor, and Safety Harbor.

For more information, visit our website at www.FamilyLawClearwater.com
or call (727) 726-0797.

The court system, like every other part of society, had been affected by the virus. Here in Pinellas County, prisoner visitation has been on video for years, and not face to face. The coronavirus pandemic has crippled the U.S. court system, creating legal dilemmas as the accused miss their days in court. The public health crisis could build a legal backlog that overwhelms courts across the country, leaving some defendants behind bars longer, and forcing prosecutors to decide which cases to pursue and which to let slide.

Judges from California to Maine have postponed trials and nearly all in-person hearings to keep crowds from packing courthouses. Trials that were underway — like the high-profile case against multimillionaire real estate heir Robert Durst — have been halted. Some chief judges have suspended grand juries, rendering new indictments impossible. Other have allowed them to sit, though six feet apart.

Prosecutors may have to abandon some low-level cases to keep people from flooding into the legal system.

Many judges are holding hearings by phone or video chat to keep all cases from grinding to a halt. Other courts are stymied by outdated technology. T

Judges have asked for emergency powers to delay trials longer than the law generally allows and extend key deadlines, like when a defendant must initially appear in court.

That could keep people locked up longer, exposing them to unsafe jail conditions, and violate their constitutional right to a speedy trial, defense lawyers say.

The pandemic has shuttered nearly every aspect of everyday life as the death toll mounts and more states impose strict stay-at-home orders. There are nearly 400,000 cases and more than 12,000 deaths in the U.S., according to a tally kept by Johns Hopkins University.

Still, coast-to-coast disruptions of the courts system are unprecedented.

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina forced courts in New Orleans to temporarily close. The suspension of legal deadlines after the natural disaster left thousands languishing behind bars for months without formal charges, attorneys say. Lawyers there fear a repeat.

The COVID-19 disruptions are causing widespread confusion with prosecutors and defense attorneys as they struggle to file documents, get matters heard in courthouses operating on skeleton crews and share information with jailed clients while maintaining social distancing.

Attorneys are wary of visiting their clients in jails for fear of contracting the virus or spreading it behind bars. They rely on phone calls, which in some places are recorded, limiting what they can say.

“The courts are looking down the barrel of a real serious bottleneck,” said Jonathan Smith, executive director of the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs. “I don’t think anybody has figured out what they’re going to do.”

For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in a few weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death.

Steven W. Hair, focuses his practice as a divorce attorney, family law attorney in Clearwater, Palm Harbor, and Safety Harbor.

For more information, visit our website at www.FamilyLawClearwater.com
or call (727) 726-0797.

The first thing that happens when you initiate a divorce is that temporary orders are issued. For many fathers, this is a time of sobering realization. You come face to face with the financial obligation that you are going to face. Maintaining two households costs more than maintaining one, and the courts are going to insure that the children are provided for.

Temporary orders are made by family courts at a hearing when couples separate. In some states, a party can request a temporary order from the family court even before separation papers are filed. The hearing will then be scheduled within days or weeks.

Do temporary orders become permanent?

Many divorce cases involve temporary orders issued by a judge to determine alimony and child support payments, as well as actual child custody terms. As their name says, temporary orders are not permanent.

How long can a temporary order last?

A TRO lasts for 14 days or until your temporary orders hearing, whichever is sooner.
Very often, a divorce action can take several months, or even years, to conclude. As a result parties may need to decide how financial and parenting time matters will be handled while their case is pending.  If parties are unable to reach an agreement regarding these matters, then they will often put these issues before the Court at a temporary orders hearing.  This article is intended to provide general information as to temporary orders hearings.

Understanding Temporary Orders in Divorce Law

Issues:  In most states, parties can ask for temporary orders as to child support, parenting time schedules, decision making for the children, use and possession of property, including the marital residence or other properties, use and possession of cars,  payment of expenses (including attorney fees) and debt, as well as payment of spousal support (commonly referred to as alimony or maintenance).

Process: The point of any hearing in a divorce case is for you or your attorney to provide the court reliable, credible information (evidence) that supports the result you are seeking.  The evidence can be embraced in documents (bank statements, credit card statements, for example) or “told” to the Court by people with information relevant to the issues at hand (witnesses).  Typically, a temporary orders hearing will be handled in one of two ways, either by calling witnesses (including the parties) to the stand and asking them questions aimed at eliciting direct testimony from them (referred to as an “evidentiary hearing”) or by your attorney offering summaries of what witnesses would say, either orally or via affidavit. (This second way is often referred to as “proffering” or “offers of proof”). The significant distinction between these two processes is, essentially, who does the talking; witnesses or attorneys. Temporary orders can even be a mix of these two methods, but either typically allows for the submission of documents in addition to written or oral testimony.

Preparation: It is important to be very prepared for the temporary orders hearing in your case.  First, you must have a clear agenda as to what you are asking for and that must be clearly articulated to the Court.  Second, you must be prepared to offer evidence up that supports your requests.

Hearing: As a party, you will almost certainly either testify or provide the information contained in an “offer of proof”.  If you testify, that means you will “take the stand” by sitting in the witness chair and answer questions you are asked. Both your attorney and the other side will ask you questions directly, and you will answer them in open court. You may wish to present information from other persons too, and they may either testify directly or a summary of what they will say will be provided. Often, these summaries are provided by written statements that are sworn to by the person making them. If your Court handles their temporary orders by offers of proof, then affidavits are often required a few days in advance of the hearing so the other side gets to see what will be presented.

Orders: After the hearing is done, the Court will decide on the issues presented, and render formal orders.  Sometimes the Court will state the orders immediately at the conclusion of the hearing, or sometimes they will take the matter under advisement and issue orders after due consideration.  As the name indicates, these temporary orders are not necessarily representative of what a final decree will require, however they do have the same binding effect as a decree until such time as a new order or final decree is entered.

Steven W. Hair, focuses his practice as a divorce attorney, family law attorney in Clearwater, Palm Harbor, and Safety Harbor.

For more information, visit our website at www.FamilyLawClearwater.com
or call (727) 726-0797.

According to ABC News April 17, 2020. A wave of divorce filings is expected to break across the country when COVID-19 confinement ends, according to several divorce attorneys.

While access to courts is now limited, “when those restrictions are lifted, I have no doubt that there will be an overwhelming number of filings,” said New York divorce attorney Marcy Katz. In Chicago, family law attorney Robert Segal expects a “deluge” of divorce cases.

“This is what we are hearing around the country,” said Susan Myers, president of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML). “We are fielding calls right now from people who are tired of being in the same house with each other.”

In jurisdictions that have shut down their filing systems, she senses “there will be a rush to the courthouse” when operations resume.

Tension bred by forced proximity is only one reason cited for a spike in divorce after the COVID-19 crisis. Katz has found that it “may also be due to the fact that people are coming to terms with their mortality and want to make positive changes in their lives.”

Segal puts what he sees in a broader context. “We are living in a polarized society,” he said. “And that extends to the home. People are less willing to compromise, less willing to work things out.”

Financial stress combined with confinement is also pushing some marriages to a legal and physical breaking point. Myers paints a vivid picture behind some of the calls divorce attorneys are getting now: “If you are stuck in a little apartment and one of you has been laid off or maybe both of you have been laid off and you’ve got kids and it’s loud and you’re tired and everybody is on high adrenaline fear, if you don’t have good coping skills, it’s not surprising that domestic violence is on the rise.”

And domestic violence, she added, “is a component in many of our relationship breakups.”

If the expected breakup surge does happen when stay-at-home orders are lifted, it would be the opposite of current trends. A study published by the American Sociological Association found that divorce rates have been trending downward especially among younger couples since 2008. A rough estimate for the overall divorce rate of first marriages is 40% to 42%, according to Howard Markman, co-director of the Center for Marital and Family Studies at the University of Denver.

Steven W. Hair, focuses his practice as a divorce attorney, family law attorney in Clearwater, Palm Harbor, and Safety Harbor.

For more information, visit our website at www.FamilyLawClearwater.com
or call (727) 726-0797.

The most obvious advantage of mediation is that it is less expensive. Mediation saves both time and money. In a recent  study, divorcing couples reached agreement significantly more quickly when mediating, saving around 2 ½ to 3 ½ months in time to resolution.  With today’s crowded court dockets, the actual time saved in mediation is likely far greater. It makes sense – in an adversarial proceeding, both parties pay attorneys an hourly rate to handle the case, and the bills can mount as the litigation drags out. A mediator brings both sides to the table, and the process is controlled completely by the parties. The only ones who have a financial advantage in divorce litigation are the attorneys.

You are probably going to be ordered to have mediation anyway. You may as well be proactive about it. Increasingly, Family Court judges order parties to mediation before they are allowed to continue their case in the courtroom. With such crowded dockets, these judges are fighting to ensure that only parties that truly belong in court wind up there. Why wait for the judge? You can start saving money at the outset by skipping the initial court appearance and heading straight to mediation. Even when litigation becomes necessary, one study suggests that less than 20 percent of families who begin a divorce proceeding through mediation appear before a judge, while 75 percent who pursue an adversarial process wind up in court.

Mediation is more private. One big difference between mediation and a litigated divorce settlement is privacy. Issues that arise in litigated proceedings may find their way elsewhere, and proceedings take place on the public record. Ready to air your dirty laundry in public? Likely not. With very limited exceptions, your mediator cannot reveal anything discussed at mediation – to anyone. The confidentiality of a mediation protects sensitive information and the privacy of the parties involved.

You might get a better outcome. It’s not a stretch to imagine that a process in which parties hash out an agreement with the assistance of an individual trained to help them collaborate produces better outcomes than a purely adversarial process.  Parties are encouraged to find common ground in a mediation, rather than fight for ground.  A study referenced earlier shows that there “significantly more joint legal custody awards” in mediation than in litigation. Overall, couples who mediate divorce, child custody and other family law issues wind up with far higher rates of compliance with the agreements made in those mediations than those who litigate, even long-term.  Cases involving children result in much more stable households post-divorce when parents mediate. Outcomes are far more positive all-around.

Steven W. Hair, focuses his practice as a divorce attorney, family law attorney in Clearwater, Palm Harbor, and Safety Harbor.

For more information, visit our website at www.FamilyLawClearwater.com
or call (727) 726-0797.

Steven W. Hair has become a Florida Supreme Court Certified Family Law Mediator. In order to become a Florida Supreme Court certified mediator, an applicant must meet the education requirement, complete a Florida Supreme Court approved mediation certification course in the area of certification sought, observe and/or co-mediate a number of mediation cases in that area and have good moral character.

The Florida Supreme Court has mandatory requirements which must be met by a person applying for certification as a mediator.  In addition to completing a Florida Supreme Court certified mediation training program, the applicant must possess sufficient education (which may include graduate level) and experience, complete the required mentorship obligations, and demonstrate good moral character.  The specific requirements are contained in rules 10.100, Certification Requirements, and 10.105, Point System Categories, Florida Rules for Certified and Court-Appointed Mediators as well as in Administrative Orders AOSC11-1 and AOSC12-48.

Obviously this is a great honor for attorney Hair. Mediation has become an increasingly  popular choice for people seeking to obtain a divorce, particularly for people who may not be able to afford a conventional divorce.

Divorce mediation is about you and your soon to be ex-spouse deciding your own divorce and what is best for the both of you and most importantly, your children. In mediation, you and your spouse meet with a neutral third party, the mediator, and with their help, you work through the issues you need to resolve so the two of you can end your marriage as amicably and cost effective as possible. The issues covered include but at not limited to the following:

1. Distribution of Property (Assets/Liabilities)

2. Child Custody and Parenting Time

3. Child Support/Maintenance

4. Retirement

5. Taxes

In mediation, the couple, with the help of the mediator, works out agreements on the above issues. Sometimes agreements come easy, sometimes they take time and a lot of work. When agreements are hard to reach, that is when the mediator intervenes. It is the mediators job to keep the lines of communication open, brainstorm ideas, reality test the couple, teach empathy and assist the couple in their decision making process. Mediators help keep the couple focused on the issues at hand, trying not to get them off track. When divorcing couples get off track and away from the above issues during mediation, arguing, name-calling and bad prior memories are brought up.

Steven W. Hair, focuses his practice as a divorce attorney, family law attorney in Clearwater, Palm Harbor, and Safety Harbor.

For more information, visit our website at www.FamilyLawClearwater.com
or call (727) 726-0797.

It seems that there are always an increase in the number of divorces filed right after the first of the year. Apparently the New Years resolutions frequently involve getting out of an unpleasant situation. Also, apparently  affairs are often discovered around the holidays. It also appears that the holidays create a lot of pressures at the end of the year that combine to put stress on people in unhappy or weak relationships. Family, financial woes, etc. associated with the holidays add to the stress. Turning over a new leaf to start over and improve ones life was another reason given. This seems to be a logical explanation for a clearly difficult and perhaps heart wrenching decision.

People with children often want to wait until after the holidays for the sake of the children. There is also the hope, perhaps overly optimistic, that the divorce will be completed by the beginning of the next school year. These people tend to be in the “improving ones life” camp.

So as divorce lawyers, we hope to avoid or at least resolve in advance the holiday visitation disputes that inevitably crop up, then relax and enjoy the holiday as we await the busy season to begin.

In the last several years, the phenomena started early for us and many other attorneys. We were contacted by more people in December in the last few years than in any years in recent memory. In some recent years, the calls started in November at a pace more robust than in prior years. Moreover, we have heard of more people telling their spouse it “is over” before the holidays this year. I suspect that in some, it was the discovery/disclosure of a new significant other or perhaps pressure being exerted by that person that was the cause. In other cases, the person just didn’t want to wait until the new year to advise their spouse.

Steven W. Hair, focuses his practice as a divorce attorney, family law attorney in Clearwater, Palm Harbor, and Safety Harbor.

For more information, visit our website at www.FamilyLawClearwater.com
or call (727) 726-0797.

When going through a divorce, child custody is usually one of the most significant and most hotly contested issues. And it is difficult enough when the parents are married, but what about when they are not married?

If you are trying to figure out what will happen to your child custody arrangement after a break-up, make sure you know which factors the court considers before making any custody orders.

Establishing Parental Rights

For married parents, determining parental rights is usually very straightforward, but when a child’s parents are unmarried, it can be much more difficult to determine parental rights. And, in order to obtain any type of custodial rights, you must first establish that you have parental rights to the child in question. In Washington, as in most states, unmarried fathers must establish paternity in order to receive acknowledgment as the child’s legal parent.

Without establishing paternity, an unmarried father will not automatically receive parental rights, even if he is the child’s biological father and has assumed a paternal role in the child’s life. A biological mother, on the other hand, is automatically granted parental rights. Likewise, if a married woman gives birth, her husband is presumed to be the father and he receives parental rights automatically.

In order to establish parental rights, an unmarried father must sign an acknowledgment of paternity, along with the child’s mother. Or, if the child’s mother will not sign the acknowledgement, the father can file a petition to establish parentage through the court, which usually involves genetic testing to confirm the paternity.

Once a father obtains paternal rights, he has the right to pursue custody in the same way a mother would. Both mothers and fathers have equal rights to child custody.

How is Child Custody Determined?

Child custody is determined on a case-by-case basis, which means there is no standard arrangement that all unmarried couples use when they break up. Parents have the option of settling a parenting plan through mediation or outside of court, but if they are not able to reach an agreement on their own, they will have to bring their case before a judge.

In court, the judge will consider the following factors before determining child custody:
•The child’s relationship with each parent
•Each parent’s health and ability to care for the child
•The child’s relationship with each parent’s community, household, and other family members
•If one parent acted as the child’s primary caregiver in the past
•The child’s wishes, if the child is deemed mature enough to express an opinion
•Any history of domestic violence or abuse

What Are Our Custody Options?

Depending on each of these factors, the judge may decide to grant joint or sole custody. In a joint custody arrangement, the parents will share parenting time somewhat equally. If one parent is granted sole custody, the other parent will be scheduled specific visitation time with the child on a regular basis. In rare cases, usually when child abuse has occurred, the court may grant one parent sole custody without allowing the other parent any visitation rights, or only supervised visits with a social worker present.

Steven W. Hair, focuses his practice as a divorce attorney, family law attorney in Clearwater, Palm Harbor, and Safety Harbor.

For more information, visit our website at www.FamilyLawClearwater.com
or call (727) 726-0797.