Father's and Mother's Rights

 

 

Every parent, whether you are the mother or the father, has rights as it pertains to your child in a divorce situation.  Arizona courts routinely exercise the "child's best interest" standard when determining those rights.  Generally, most parents in litigation will argue as to who would be the better parent to be the residential parent (meaning, the parent with whom the child will primarily live with).  This idea of being the residential parent is far different than the issue of "custody."  Custody is somewhat mislabeled in Illinois, because custody doesn't mean who has the child and when.  So, if you want joint custody, please make sure that you understand that this doesn't mean that you'll each have the child about 50% of the time.

 

Differently, custody is defined as having rights to making decisions related to the child, like choice of religion, health-care choices, and educational selections.  The word custody has nothing to do with who has the child, and when.  What does play a heavy part in where the child is located, is residency (where the child lives, primarily), and parenting time (the schedule by which the non-residential parent has the child).  So, when parents litigate, it's usually about residency and parenting time, and not about custody.  However, there could be disagreements about custody if one parent, or both, feel that they simply can't communicate effectively to make those joint decisions about the child's upbringing.

 

The topic of "mother's rights" or "father's rights" is generally advertised by some lawyers to essentially be attractive to potential clients that are either the mother or father.  You should be well aware that there is essentially no difference between the mother's rights and the father's rights according to Illinois law.  In fact, seeking litigation that pursues one parent's rights over that of the other parent's rights automatically places you against the true court measure of "child's rights."  Most attorneys and I would argue a number of Judge's automatically classify you as the loser in the custody battle when your retain the lawyer that holds themselves out as the champion for dads or moms.

 

The best approach is to hire an attorney that's well enough seasoned to mask your wants and portray those wants as being consistent with the child's best interests in your case.  That approach would be the winning tactic to do very well in a custody case, and a strategic nuance that many less-seasoned attorneys do not consider, or discuss with their clients.

 

If you want a no-pressure and free consultation with Mr. Nordini, simply call him at (480) 527-9000 or email him at paul.nordini@divorceinfosite.com