When Your Child Is The Subject of Dispute, An Aggressive Attorney is Vital

We can all agree there is nothing at stake in a divorce more precious than our children. If you take on the services of the Eversole Law Firm, you’re taking on a legal team that will fight tirelessly for the best interests of your children. If the path of least resistance to that is a cooperative approach, so be it. But where your children are at stake, we’re also not afraid to get down in the mud and pull out all the stops. That means bringing in outside experts and investigators. It also means aggressive litigation, something for which our firm’s founder, Steven D. Eversole, has earned a reputation.

What Are The Different Kinds of Child Custody Orders?

There are three forms of custody available to Alabama courts in divorce proceedings: temporary custody, physical custody, and legal custody:

• Temporary custody is exactly what it sounds like: custody determined by the court only for the duration of the divorce proceedings. The final marital agreement’s custody and visitation orders may be something else entirely.
• Legal custody determines which parent has the right to make the major decisions regarding the child. The preference of the court in most cases is usually joint legal custody, but courts are allowed considerable flexibility in order to ensure the best interests of the child are served.
• Physical custody dictates the residence of the child – with which parent will the child live, and how and when will the other parent visit the child. Again, it is worth noting that in Alabama most courts conclude joint legal and joint physical custody is the best avenue for the child (or children).

Why Might The Court Decide Against Joint Child Custody?

As said above, the courts are given significant leeway to deviate from state rules if it is deemed in the child’s best interests. There are a number of factors that may lead the court to consider deciding against joint custody, ranging from one spouse’s strenuous argument against it (backed by a strong rationale for said wish) to the geographic distance between the two parents’ homes.

Is There A Way To Avoid Court Intervention in Child Custody Decisions?

If you file a petition for divorce with the court, or enter into any custody action involving the court, the child becomes a ward of the court until the proceedings are concluded and thus subject to the final ruling of the court. In other words, if you open the door for the court to get involved, it will walk through that door, and you can’t just ask it to leave once it starts giving orders you don’t like. THE WAY AROUND THIS IS EITHER A COLLABORATIVE DIVORCE OR DIVORCE MEDIATION PROCEEDING. In such cases, the parents sit down with an attorney or attorneys and make their own agreement about custody (and other matters) and then together present their finalized settlement to the court for approval. This is just one of many reasons why we at the Eversole Law Firm in Birmingham, Alabama encourage clients to consider these kind of cooperative avenues before going down the path of litigation. The fewer parties involved, the more control you keep over the ultimate outcome.

How Is Child Custody and Visitation Enforced After The Divorce?

If one party fails to abide by the court’s orders – as laid out in the final marital agreement – than the other party may ask the court to intervene and enforce the orders. There are several ways in which this may proceed, the most extreme being police involvement and arrest. It is not out of bounds for the party that failed to comply with the child custody or visitation orders to possibly face criminal charges.