Child Custody Lawyers Crestwood

Illinois Child Custody Lawyers Representing parents in Crestwood

Anyone who has minor children from a relationship and is going through a divorce or a breakup will need to learn more about child custody in Illinois. Rather than award child custody to parents in the Crestwood area, courts now instead allocate parental responsibilities. Parents can share in different types of parental responsibilities that are important for the upbringing of their child or children. To learn more about child custody or the allocation of parental responsibilities in Illinois, you should get in touch with our child custody lawyers in Crestwood for more information.

What Are Parental Responsibilities and Child Custody in Crestwood?

Under the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act (IMDMA), child custody is no longer the terminology used to discuss the roles parents play in their children’s lives after a divorce or separation. Instead of courts awarding sole or joint legal and physical custody, courts allocate parental responsibilities. Those parental responsibilities include significant decision-making responsibilities (which used to be known as legal custody) and parenting time (which used to be known as physical custody and visitation).

Significant decision-making responsibilities include making decisions about a child’s education, a child’s religious upbringing, and a child’s healthcare. Parenting time requires a parent to exercise caretaking functions for a child, such as ensuring that the child has an appropriate bed-time or that the child completes his or her homework. A Crestwood family lawyer can say more about caretaking functions.

How Parental Responsibilities are Allocated in Crestwood

Parental responsibilities can be allocated in one of two ways:

• Parenting plan, which the parents develop and through which the parents allocate parental responsibilities if they can reach an agreement; or
• Allocation judgment, which the court issues when the parents cannot reach an agreement about how to allocate parental responsibilities in a parenting plan.

Best Interests of the Child Factors the Court Uses to Allocate Parental Responsibilities

In the allocation of parental responsibilities, the best interests of the child should guide all decisions. The following are examples of some of the best interests factors the IMDMA identifies for courts or parents to consider when allocating responsibilities:

• Child’s wishes if the child is mature enough;
• Child’s adjustment to his or her circumstances;
• Health of all of the parties, including mental and physical health;
• Prior agreement between the parents concerning decision-making issues;
• Parents’ wishes;
• Needs to the child;
• Parents’ abilities to cooperate with one another for their child’s sake; and
• Whether or not a restriction on parental responsibilities would be appropriate.

Contact Our Crestwood Child Custody Attorneys for Assistance With Your Case

Whether you are going through a contentious divorce and need assistance with your child custody case or you are separating from a partner with whom you share minor children, our experienced Crestwood child custody attorneys can speak with you today about the allocation of parental responsibilities in Illinois. Our child custody attorneys in Crestwood can evaluate your situation for you and can help you to seek significant decision-making responsibilities and parenting time. Contact Demetrios N. Dalmares & Associates, Ltd. to learn more about how we can help.