Florida Family Law Lawyers

Parental Responsibility and Child Custody

Serving Pasco, Pinellas and Hillsborough Counties with law offices in Largo, Holiday & Palm Harbor

K. Dean Kantaras is Board Certified in Marital and Family Law by the Florida Bar

When parents divorce, they face the tough questions of where their child will live and who will provide care.  Our family law lawyers understand how difficult these emotional circumstances can be for both parents and children.  At the Law Offices of Kantaras & Andreopoulos, our attorneys provide clients with the adept legal counsel they need.

Determining child custody

Child custody assignments designate who provides a residence for a child and who makes major decisions affecting the welfare of the child such as the following:

• Education
• Childcare
• Medical attention
• Religious upbringing
• Discipline

A court may grant physical or legal custody to a parent.  In the case of physical custody, a parent provides a residence for the child, while legal custody means that a parent has the right to make major decisions concerning the child.

Courts award child custody in a number of ways depending on the circumstances of the divorce. The different categories of child custody awards include the following:

• Temporary custody: Custody awarded while divorce proceedings are in process
• Split custody: With two or more children, each parent has physical custody of different children
• Sole custody: One parent alone has legal and physical custody of the child
• Joint custody: Parents share custody in one of the following ways:

• Joint legal custody: Parents make joint decisions about the upbringing of the child, but only one parent provides a residence for the child
• Shared physical custody: The child has a residence with each parent, spending no more than 65 percent of the time with one parent
• Combination: An agreement combining shared physical and joint legal custody

Parental responsibility

Parental responsibility describes the right and obligation of a parent to make decisions that affect a child.  When responsibility is shared, parents confer to make major decisions but the parent with physical custody at any given time makes the day-to-day decisions. When a parent has sole responsibility, that parent makes all the decisions affecting the child.

Determining custody and parental responsibility

Unless divorcing parents come to an agreement, courts determine what is in the best interest of the child.  In deciding how to assign custody and responsibility, courts may consider the following factors:

• Willingness of each parent to cooperate
• The mental and physical health of the parents and child
• Emotional ties between parents and child
• Financial status of each parent
• Preference of the child
• Evidence of violence or abuse
• Family, school and community environments that each parent can provide

Family law lawyers in Clearwater

For skilled legal representation, call or email us online for a Clearwater family law lawyer at the Law Offices of Kantaras & Andreopoulos. K. Dean Kantaras is board certified in marital and family law by the Florida Bar with offices in Clearwater, Largo, Holiday & Palm Harbor, serving Pasco, Pinellas and Hillsborough Counties.