{"id":453,"date":"2018-04-27T15:20:55","date_gmt":"2018-04-27T15:20:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eralawgroup.wordpress.com\/?p=453"},"modified":"2018-09-27T02:28:45","modified_gmt":"2018-09-27T02:28:45","slug":"familyfriday-what-is-the-best-interests-of-the-child-standard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eralawgroup.com\/familyfriday-what-is-the-best-interests-of-the-child-standard\/","title":{"rendered":"#FamilyFriday: What is the \u201cBest Interests of the Child\u201d Standard?"},"content":{"rendered":"

After families separate, parents must decide where their children will live, or custody<\/a>, and what schedule the children will have with the other parent, or visitation.\u00a0 Some families can settle this among themselves while others require Court intervention.\u00a0 Often parents assume the Court will award custody to the mother however, that\u2019s not necessarily the case.\u00a0 In this week\u2019s #FamilyFriday article, ERA Law Group, LLC explains the \u201cBest Interests of the Child\u201d standard used by the Court in determining custody.<\/p>\n

Put simply, the Best Interests of the Child standard simply means that the Court looks at certain factors to determine what is in the best interest of the children involved in the family situation. \u00a0Even when parents have an agreement, the Court still must make a finding that the agreement is in the best interest of the child<\/a>.\u00a0 Often parents become disgruntled because they believe they are in the best position to decide what is in the best interest of their children.\u00a0 Unfortunately, family litigation often results in both parents with opposing opinions about what is in the best interest of their children and the Court must step in to make its determination.<\/p>\n

The Court may consider a number of factors in its analysis.\u00a0 Most commonly the Court focuses on the following factors:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Primary Care Giver\u00a0<\/strong>– Who is the person who takes care of the child? Who handles the child\u2019s day-to-day activities?<\/li>\n
  2. Fitness\u00a0<\/strong>– What are the psychological and physical capacities of the parties seeking custody? Was there evidence of abuse \u2013 physical, emotional, or otherwise?<\/li>\n
  3. Character and Reputation<\/strong><\/li>\n
  4. Agreements\u00a0<\/strong>– Is there a custody agreement<\/a> already in place?<\/li>\n
  5. Ability to Maintain Family Relationships\u00a0<\/strong>– Who will be best able to help the child keep family relationships, including relationships with the other parent\u2019s family?<\/li>\n
  6. Child Preference<\/strong>\u2013 Does the child have a preference?\u00a0 Some courts will interview the children\u00a0 outside of the presence of their parents.\u00a0 The older the children involved the more weight is given to their preference.<\/li>\n
  7. Material Opportunity\u00a0<\/strong>– Which parent has the financial resources to give the child more things?<\/li>\n
  8. Age, Health and Gender of Child<\/strong><\/li>\n
  9. Residences of Parents and Opportunity for Visitation\u00a0<\/strong>– How close do the parents live to each other, extended family, school, etc?<\/li>\n
  10. Length of Separation<\/strong>– How long has the parent been separated from the child?<\/li>\n
  11. Any Prior Abandonment or Surrender of Custody\u00a0<\/strong>– Is there a history of one parent walking out and leaving the other parent to cope with the child and the home?<\/li>\n
  12. Religious Views\u00a0<\/strong>– These will be important in the court’s decision only if you can show that religious views affect the physical or emotional well-being of the child. There is no consideration made for non-religious families.<\/li>\n
  13. Disability\u00a0<\/strong>– A party’s disability is only relevant to a custody decision if the disability affects the best interest of the child.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    In addition to the above factors, the Court may also consider: Willingness to share custody; Fitness of parents; Child’s relationships with each parent; Ability to stabilize child’s school and social life; Employment considerations (e.g. long hours, extensive travel, etc.); Age and number of children; Financial status; Benefit to parent; Sincerity of parent\u2019s request for custody.<\/p>\n

    Call ERA Law Group, LLC today at (410) 919-1790 to schedule your FREE <\/strong>30 minute consultation!\u00a0 Ask about our legal service<\/a>s including: mediation, marital separation agreements, and parenting plans!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    After families separate, parents must decide where their children will live and what schedule the children will have with the other parent. To make this determination, the Court uses the “Best Interests of the Child” standard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[424,423,413],"tags":[196,44,346,36,11,12,343,67,201,193,40,41,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-453","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-child-support","8":"category-custody","9":"category-family-law","10":"tag-annapolis","11":"tag-attorney","12":"tag-best-interest-standard","13":"tag-children","14":"tag-divorce","15":"tag-family-law","16":"tag-family-lawyers","17":"tag-marriage","18":"tag-maryland","19":"tag-mediation","20":"tag-parenting-plan","21":"tag-parents","22":"tag-separation","23":"entry"},"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eralawgroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eralawgroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eralawgroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eralawgroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eralawgroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/eralawgroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":854,"href":"https:\/\/eralawgroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453\/revisions\/854"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eralawgroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eralawgroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eralawgroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eralawgroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}