What Do Judges Look at When Making Child Custody Decisions?

In my fifteen years of experience, I have found that courts (not always to be sure) try to make child custody decisions based on what is in the child’s best interest; simple as that.

Typically, the judge weighs a number of various interrelated factors. While the factors vary from state-to-state, they may generally include:

The strength of each parent-child relationship. This is called "bonding". Sometimes a judge will hear evidence about the parent-child bond through a therapist's testimony;
The emotional and developmental needs of the child. This too often comes from a therapist or other expert testimony;
The age and health of the child and parents;
The stability of each parent’s home environment. This is called "safe and stable appropriate housing";
The child’s connection to his or her community and current school. This includes extracurricular activities;
Each parent’s ability and willingness to care for the child’s physical and emotional needs as well as display protective capacity and appropriate decision making;
Whether the parents are willing to cooperate and co-parent, and
Any evidence of child abuse/neglect or domestic violence, especially in the presence of the children;
Substance Abuse;

Depending on the circumstances of your case, the court may award sole legal custody or joint legal custody. The court will also award a primary custodial parent if 50-50 is not ordered. The non-custodial parent will also be ordered to pay child support unless a deviation can be shown.

While some states favor joint or shared custody, others prefer that one parent has primary custody of the child (while the other parent has visitation rights). New Mexico prefers JOINT LEGAL CUSTODY. New Mexico law prefers co-parenting. If you need help understanding how your state handles child custody issues, contact me.

5 Comments to What Do Judges Look at When Making Child Custody Decisions? :

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essay on Wednesday, November 15, 2017 1:15 AM

Well-mannered post. I like your write work manner and language. I am a beginner in writing. I believe this will help me to write better. I exposed these blog articles are superior to other blogs.

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Maureen T. on Sunday, December 17, 2017 2:24 PM

Great list! All separating or divorcing parents should be aware of these things.

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assignmentgeek.com.au on Saturday, February 17, 2018 2:30 AM

Every one thinks about the children punishment when they break the laws. They also think that what the judges thinks about the rules and their punishment. This post tells all the questions and there answers what judges thinks while giving punishments to the children. Keeps sharing such informative posts.

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Arsl on Thursday, March 15, 2018 10:48 PM

Best for all of the others.

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