Approximation Rule In Court Cases

Child relocation laws and best practices in the United States vary from state to state. Child custody in Arizona is defined as “legal decision-making” for the child and visitation is known as “parenting time”. The term “child custody” is no longer used, effective January 1, 2013. The court can order one or both parties to have legal decision-making authority for the child(ren) and consider many factors, falling under A.R.S. 25-403. In the case of joint legal decision-making authority, both parents must work together to make decisions regarding the child. If one parent is granted sole legal decision-making authority, they make decisions about the child without consenting the other parent as long as it

About 10% of divorcing families have disagreements about custody that are significant enough to lead to court involvement about custody or visitation because according to Lebow and Black (2012) these parents also typically exhibit skills deficits in several areas. At the individual level, these parents often have difficulty understanding another person’s perspective and tend to focus on their own needs rather than on the needs of others. There is a possibility that these parents almost always have extreme difficulties with communication which ultimately leads to the court being involved.

     The purpose of this paper was to give some insight into the vicious battles that take place over child custody. It is important to mention that raising children is difficult even with two parents, now when there is only one parent the difficultly increases by leaps and bounds. The idea of joint custody seems to sound like a good solution however, Smith (2003) stated

Child custody have been an issue for many years but no clear rules have been established until approximately in the 1970’s. In the early colonial years, the arrangement was unappealing to children and their mothers and possibly doing psychologically damage. Luckily, history has evolved and children’s well-being has become a priority in divorce cases.

In 1997 the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL) created the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (UCCJEA) to replace the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act (UCCJA), which was created in 1968. Like the UCCJA, the new and improved UCCJEA served the purpose of “deter[ing] the removal or kidnapping of children, eliminat[ing] interstate jurisdictional competition, and prevent[ing] states from relitigating custody decisions from other states.” (Ehrlich, p. 411) Since its creation, the UCCJEA has been a major go-to reference for Courts in all states except Massachusetts and Vermont, who have not yet adopted said act, when considering the technicalities of jurisdiction for child custody cases.

The lawyers highly support a joint custody that would benefit the child. The lawyers argue the case on two different aspects.

Meyer argues that mothers who spend more time with their children should be more likely to obtain custody rather than the fathers. Using support from the Pew Research Center, Meyer states that married fathers spend a round 6.5 hours a week taking care of their children, while mothers

Krysik, J., & Lecroy, C. (2012). Development and Initial Validation of an Outcome Measure for Home Visitation: The Healthy Families Parenting Inventory. Infant Mental Health Journal , 496 - 505.

She filed for custody after the mother was involved in a car accident and the child was placed under the grandmother’s care more frequently. Id. at 1212 The court found that the grandmother did show evidence of a child-parent relationship because this threshold requires a nonparent to care for a child on a day-to-day basis and have physical custody of the child for longer periods than weekends while the parent is working. Jensen, 168 P.3d at 1214.

Additionally, we conclude that pertinent factors (i.e. decreased parenting time) were not considered resulting in inaccurate findings. When considering a modification of parenting time, the court must consider the following factors: relationship between parent/s and child, interaction between the child and parent/s and others who could significantly affect the child’s best interest, child’s adjustment to home, school and community, wishes of the child (when appropriate), and the mental and physical health of all involved. According to Arizona law, unless evidence is provided to the contrary, it is generally in the best interests of the child to have “substantial, frequent, meaningful, and continuing parenting time with both parents.” No such evidence was presented. There was no question as to the fitness of either

There is no statute, formula or template which the courts would rely upon to decide cases related to children visitation. The relationships between parties, such as non-custodian parent, de factor parent, same sex partner, grandparents, aunt and uncle and the children subject to visitation dispute are complex. During the last several decades, the phrase “best interest of the child” has evolved. Many states have a set of criteria to define the “best interest of the child;” however, the State of Massachusetts is among a few states which reserves the trial judges with judicial authority and discretion to decide based on the material facts and evidence presented at trial.

Alternative response (AR) (also called an assessment response or family assessment response) in this publication, the terms alternative response (or pathway) and assessment response (or pathway) are used interchangeably. These responses—usually applied in low- and moderate-risk cases—typically do not require a formal determination or substantiation of child abuse or neglect, and names are not entered into a central registry. Both pathways for the most part envelop evaluations of child wellbeing and/or hazard. An exhaustive family evaluation concentrated on family 's qualities and necessities is integral to AR and might likewise be incorporated with IR. Both pathways offer numerous basic standards and objectives, including an emphasis on child security, permanency, and prosperity. ((n.d.). Retrieved December 20, 2015, from https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubPDFs/differential_response.pdf)

Alternative response (AR) (also called an assessment response or family assessment response) in this publication, the terms alternative response (or pathway) and assessment response (or pathway) are used interchangeably. These responses—usually applied in low- and moderate-risk cases—typically do not require a formal determination or substantiation of child abuse or neglect, and names are not entered into a central registry. Both pathways for the most part envelop evaluations of child wellbeing and/or hazard. An exhaustive family evaluation concentrated on family 's qualities and necessities is integral to AR and might likewise be incorporated with IR. Both pathways offer numerous basic standards and objectives, including an emphasis on child security, permanency, and prosperity. ((n.d.). Retrieved December 20, 2015, from https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubPDFs/differential_response.pdf)

"shared parenting" is a controversial topic in family law. It generally refers to the presumption that children of divorced or separated parents should spend an equal (or almost equal) amount of time with each parent. The concept has largely been promoted by fathers' organisations that contend that a child's life is enhanced if both parents continue to be significantly involved in the child's life following separation or divorce.

As the war on equality continues to rage, let’s add the equality of parents to the fight. Women talk of equality at work, men talk of equality at paternity leave, fathers should be fighting for equal laws considering how child caregiving is changing. Courts should consider changing the default minimum custody time to a more equal shared custody time, that would keep the child seeing both parents. The use of mediation has been proven to be a valuable resource for disputing couples to resolve differences they may have. Another tool that would assist the courts in these difficult decision is the evaluation. An evaluator is able to learn about the family and is better educated to determine what the best interest of a child would be, allowing