| Putative Father's Right to Custody vs. Non-Parent |
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| Recent years have witnessed a number of changes in the nature of marital and other domestic relations in the United States, with a concomitant modification in public attitudes toward such things as the status of children born outside of marriage. These changes have been accompanied by an evolution in the way in which the legal system views a number of issues related to family law. One such group of issues concerns the right of a putative father, that is to say, a man who is supposed or reputed to be the father of a child or children born to a woman to whom he is not married, or who claims to be the father of such a child or children, to assert an entitlement to custody of or visitation with such a child or children. More... |
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| Legal Custody versus Physical Custody |
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| There is a large difference between legal custody of a child and physical custody. That difference is based on the right to make the major decisions affecting the child. The parent with legal custody has the right to make those decisions. More... |
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| Uniform Reciprocal Enforcement of Support Act |
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| Problems arise where a parent and a child do not reside in the same state. To deal with jurisdictional problems in establishing and enforcing child support obligations, the federal government enacted the Uniform Reciprocal Enforcement of Support Act in the 1950s. Although it has been mostly replaced by the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act, enacted in 1998, URESA still applies in some situations. More... |
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| Impact of Custodial Parent's Relocation |
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| Americans have traditionally been a highly mobile people. In an era in which issues related to the custody of minor children are focal points in a substantial number of divorce proceedings, the ramifications of such a tradition of mobility can create a number of complex problems when the custodial parent, the former spouse to whom the court in a divorce proceeding has given custody of the minor children of the parties, chooses to relocate from one jurisdiction to another, or merely to a place within the same state that is a substantial distance away from the place of the marital residence. Courts are often called upon to resolve disputes between the parties over the questions of custody and visitation that are implicated by such choices. More... |
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| Child Support in Split Custody Cases |
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| The standard computation of child support under the child support guidelines presupposes that all of the children of the parties will live with the same parent. When the children are divided between the parents, the child support must be adjusted. More... |
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