Newsletters
Retroactive Child Support Awards
In most states, initial child support awards may be made retroactive to the date of filing and modifications may be retroaction to the date a modification is requested. In some states, retroactivity is mandatory, and in others, it is discretionary.
Role of Income Tax Returns in Determining Child Support Obligations
In order to properly determine a parent's child support obligation, it is important for the court to know what the parent actually earns. Tax returns reveal not only what a parent has historically made, but may also reveal amounts the parent has been concealing or if the parent is intentionally impoverishing him or herself.
Putative Father's Right to Visitation
Parents have a natural right to the companionship of their children. In order to experience that companionship, parents and children must have time to be together. This is generally a non-legal issue. When the child's parents are not married, the child's father is called the putative father because he is reputed to be the father of the child. A putative father may also be known as the child's natural father or biological father. To be the child's legal father, the putative father must prove his paternity before a court. The proof could be a paternity test result or acknowledgment of the child as required by statute. Once paternity is acknowledged the father has a right to visitation with his child, so long as it is in the child's best interests.
Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act
Too often, a parent, who did not like a child custody or visitation ruling in one state, would take the child to another state. In the new state, the parent could seek a new custody order or simply avoid the reach of the other parent's attempts to have the custody order of the first state enforced in the second state. To combat these problems the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act was drafted. In 1997, the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws drafted the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (UCCJEA) to address issues that arose from the application of Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act. The UCCJEA provides interstate enforcement procedures for child custody and visitation orders.
The Parental Preference Standard in Custody Disputes
A parent has a constitutional right to raise his or her child. That right is recognized in child custody proceedings by the "parental preference" standard. The standard, which is also known as the unfitness or extraordinary circumstances rule, requires that in a child custody dispute between a child's parent and a non-parent, placement of the child with the parent is preferred. Some courts have concluded that parental placement is in the best interests of the child. However, if the parent is unfit to parent the child or extraordinary circumstances exist that caution against placing the child with the parent, then custody of the child could be award to a non-parent.
