Joint Custody

Helping You Have the Time You Want With Your Kids

Custody of your children may be one of the most difficult and contentious issues in your divorce. Regardless of whether you are trying to get custody of your children, you want time with them and want to continue to be a significant part of their lives.

At Dwire Law Offices, P.A., in Lakeville, Minnesota we understand this and will help you work out a parenting plan that gives you regular time with your children. Our lawyer focuses all efforts on parenting time and working out a schedule between you and your spouse or your child’s other parent. As parents, you know what is best for your children. The more you can focus on that, the better things tend to turn out for everyone.

Burnsville Family Law Firm

The term “joint custody” can be referred to in two different ways:

• Joint legal custody: Where both parents have decision-making powers regarding important decisions in their children’s lives, such as health care, religion and education.
• Joint physical custody: Where both parents contribute in a meaningful, day-to-day way to their children’s lives.

Unless there is evidence of serious safety issues that would affect your child’s well-being, such as abuse, joint legal custody will likely be granted and both parents will have the ability to make decisions about and receive information regarding their children’s lives.

Joint physical custody used to be decided based on which parent was considered the “custodial parent.” This has changed considerably over the last 10 years in Minnesota: now the focus is on ensuring that both parents have as much time with their children as is reasonable and that they can work into their own schedules. This gives each parent more control over how scheduling will work and ensures that they will be available to their children when they have the time together.

Child custody arrangements will affect the amount of child support paid by one parent to the other. Our goal for both issues is to work out a situation that you and your spouse are comfortable with so you can work together to co-parent your children in the future.

Call Dwire Law Offices to Schedule Your Free Consultation

To discuss your child custody issue with attorney Todd Dwire, please contact us at 952-232-0179 or 866-442-9693.