Complicated Child Custody Case

You would sometimes see movies with a plot about bitter child custody cases. You might even be driven to cry in pity over the children being hapless victims caught in the middle of the "war" among their parents.

These scenes not only happen in the movies, mind you. In real life, while most divorcing parents don't fight over custody, when they do, the whole thing could get totally outrageous. Child custody is complicated business that cause emotional havoc among those involved but the hardest hit are the children, caught in the middle of the whole mess.

Legal bills could also go to scandalous costs when dispute is about child custody. When divorcing couples are in dispute over a fixed asset, they could take steps to control the costs and reach agreement especially when it is apparent that the cost of the fight exceeds the value of the asset being disputed over. Over child custody fights, you cannot do this since no one can ever put a price on child custody. This simple fact is the main reason why it's not unusual to see that while the fight over child custody ensues, the parties spend many times their net worth.

These situations happen, understandably, since the word "custody" itself encourages conflict between parents. They assume that the aftermath of the case is that one of them wins and the other loses custody over their child/children. But that's not actually the main point. The important thing to consider is that children need to have a close, loving relationship with both parents, though "they are not married" anymore.

How complicated a child custody case could get may be determined if these fundamental issues on custody issues are ignored or forgotten:

First of all, custody is not fair to everyone concerned - the parents and their children. Realizing this, the second point is that the court is charged with the duty to protect the children's best interests and not to be fair to either parent.

Third point of fact, mostly misunderstood, is that the parents have no authority to let the court or children cooperate for future custody arrangements. The judge would decide against scheduling the children so each of the parents could have a period of time with them since it may not be for their best interests to force them through changes. This decision will not be fair to parents, but it may be in the best interests of children.

There is a presumption in favor of the status quo in almost all states and provinces. Before a judge decides on forcing changes to the children's lives, he/she should be convinced enough that the present arrangement is pretty bad for the children and/or a change would dramatically improve the children's lives.

Often, warring parents over child custody claim that they think the world of their children, that's why their fighting over custody. This is not really true since when parents are in the throes of divorce, they are unable to focus on anything but themselves and their struggles, and even extend their spite against each other by using their children, like some kind of emotional blackmail.

But since, the main issue is really for the best interest of the children during a bitter time of their parents' divorce. The most effective thing to accomplish this is to not to fight over child custody.