When parents separate or divorce in Georgia, a judge or the parents if they can reach an agreement will decide how couples will share custody and visitation of their children. When making custody decisions, a judge will examine the child's best interests. This article provides an overview of child custody in Georgia. If you have specific questions after reading this article, contact a local family law attorney for advice. Georgia recognizes two types of custody — physical and legal custody.
A parent with physical custody lives with the child. Parents can share physical custody called "joint custody" or one parent may have sole physical custody.
When parents share joint custody in Georgia, they have roughly equal time with the child. For example, one parent may have four overnights per week and the other parent may have three. A parent with legal custody may make major medical, legal, educational, and religious decisions on the child's behalf.
In many cases, a judge will award parents joint legal custody. Joint legal custody in Georgia means that both parents have a say in all major decisions involving their children. Generally, in cases where parents share legal and physical custody, one parent will be designated the " primary custodial parent.
Generally, the parent who spends more time with the child will be designated the "custodial parent" and the other parent will be designated as the "noncustodial parent". Georgia's custody laws require a judge to make a child's best interests the focus of any custody decision. Here are some items to consider. Who watches the child? Who feeds the child?
Who gets her dressed and takes her to school? Who takes her to the doctor and gives her medicine? Who bathes him? Who takes care of him when he is sick?
Who cleans? Who plays with the child and helps with homework? Who has contacts with the school? Who spends time elsewhere? Who drinks or does drugs? Does the other parent have a criminal record? Is either parent living with another person? You need witnesses who can show that the child is better off with you. Family members, neighbors, teachers, friends, church contacts, police or caseworkers may be good witnesses. School, medical, police or county DFCS records also may help prove you would be the better parent.
You should get copies of any records that will help you. The court needs to know if there has been any violence in your home. A judge must make the safety of the child and the abused parent the primary focus of the custody decision and must consider violence against the parent when deciding custody. For example, original bills received by the client from a creditor may be admissible in court.
However, printouts from Websites like MySpace or Facebook may not be admissible as gathered by the party. Most courts will require authentication of those types of documents and may require production directly from the Website administrator. Photographs taken by any person other than the party will not be admissible without testimony from the person who actually took the photograph. Even a police report provided by a client is not admissible without testimony from the police officer who produced the report.
It is very important for clients to gather information in the way of documents, witness lists, etc. The attorney will have to evaluate each document to determine if that piece of evidence is admissible in court or if an admissible version of the document should be obtained through the discovery process.
Guardian ad Litems are often necessary. Guardians are valuable assets for any father seeking primary custody of his children. It is very rare that a child is ever asked or expected to testify in court. In fact, in many circumstances judges will think negatively of a parent who asks a child to testify against the other parent.
This act applies in all interstate custody actions, even when kidnapping has not been asserted. A great deal of this particular act addresses jurisdiction issues for cases when the parents have filed custody actions in two separate states. It violates federal law for two states to concurrently assume jurisdiction over the same custody matter. According to the act, the state that will have jurisdiction is the one that: has subject matter jurisdiction over the matter under state law and is the resident state of the child or either parent.
Once a divorce action is filed and both parties have notice of the filing under Georgia law, neither parent can remove the child from the state while the divorce is pending without consent from the other parent.
After custody has been determined and a divorce decree entered, a decision to move the child out of the state may warrant evaluation of the wisdom of the move from Georgia. Any time a parent decides to move away, the other parent should file a modification action. That is not to say that a move will automatically change custody, but a decision to move with the children certainly is a change of circumstances that warrants review by the court.
All primary physical custodians will receive support in some form under the divorce decree. Because Georgia sees child support as a right of the child, and not the custodial parent, the right to receive child support cannot be waived. Our website uses "cookies" small text files stored by your web browser to track visits and may use this information to retarget and remarket visitors with advertisements across the Internet.
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Bird's nest custody is a joint custody arrangement where the children remain in the family home and the parents take turns moving in and out. Try before you buy. If you have any questions click here. Please note: We are not a law firm. At no time do we review your answers for legal sufficiency, draw legal conclusions, provide legal advice or apply the law to the facts of your particular situation.
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