Los Angeles Child custody and visitation Attorneys

LAW OFFICES OF CATHLEEN E. NORTON

Child Custody and Visitation in Los Angeles

Child custody is the highest priority among divorcing parents and the most bitterly disputed aspects of a divorce. In California, either parent can have custody of the children, or the parents can share custody.

The judge of California family law court makes the final decision about custody and visitation but usually will approve the arrangement (the custody and visitation agreement or parenting plan) that both parents agree on.

There are two types of child custody in Los Angeles, California:

• Legal custody – who makes important decisions for your children (like health care, education, and welfare)
• Physical custody – who your children live with.

For most custody cases in the past few years in Los Angeles California, parents equally share legal rights and responsibilities of their children, which is “Joint Custody”, typically includes decisions about education, health and welfare of the children. In other cases, one parent may be awarded primary physical custody of the children, which is called “Sole Custody”, and visitation or “parenting time” is given to the non-custodial parent.

The California family law court will grant reasonable visitation rights to a parent unless it is shown that the visitation will be detrimental to the best interests of the child. The types of visitation for non-custodial parent are unsupervised visitation, supervised visitation, and virtual visitation. There is also third party visitation rights for grandparents or step parents. At the Law Offices of Cathleen E. Norton in Los Angeles, California, we understand that child custody and visitation is a very important subject of divorce cases. Our Los Angeles family law attorneys will guide you through the complicated procedure of child custody and visitation issues. Contact Los Angeles Child Custody Lawyers and family law attorneys at (310) 300-4021.