Considering The Needs Of Children In Divorce And Separation
A comprehensive new law, effective Jan. 1, 2016, contains many changes relating to children primarily in terminology and procedure.
However, the most important core values of our legal system relating to children have not changed, i.e., the court will still always consider what is in the best interests of the child or children first. The words have changed significantly and have been expanded to clarify both new and old concepts. We no longer refer to sole custody, joint custody or visitation for example. Instead, we now have the “parent with the majority of parenting time whose residence is tied to the children’s school district,” “allocation of parental responsibilities,” “allocation of parenting time” and “allocation judgments.” In some ways, it seems a huge change, and in other ways not so much, because the structure remains essentially the same.