Child Custody - Frequently Asked Questions

*** Taken from Doylestown Firm

Many divorced parents will have to deal with custody issues.  In addition, parents who are not married, but are getting separated, will also have to deal with custody issues.  What many individuals who are going through a divorce and have kids do not know is that Pennsylvania divorces do not have to be finalized before custody is decided.

In this next question, firm partner Kevin Zlock, a Bucks County child custody lawyer, addresses this issue.

Question: My husband and I are getting a divorce, and we have children.  Does our divorce have to be finalized before custody is decided?

Answer: That’s a good question.  You don’t need to be married to have kids, obviously, and hence, there can be a custody issues with unmarried parents. So they can be handled separately as far as married parents go as well.

So you can file custody first.  You can do the divorce first, or do them at the same time.  They don’t cross.  You do not need to attach it to the divorce complaint; you can if you wish. It’s less expensive to do it that way, sometimes, but it’s not required.

***Taken from a Doylestown Firm

Many divorced or separated parents have a Custody Order issued by the court.  However, circumstances change, and a parent may want more time with their child than the Custody Order granted.  For example, a parent who had partial custody may want more time due to a change in employment.  The Custody Order was entered a couple of years ago, the parent’s job required him to travel overseas often. However, the parent now has a new job that no longer requires him to travel.  Therefore, the parent would now like more time with his child.   

In this next question, firm partner Kevin Zlock, a Bucks County child custody lawyer, discusses 2 ways a Custody Order may be modified. 

Yes, there are 2 ways.  The best way is to discuss it, agree on it, sign the stipulation and make it an order of court. Inexpensive and quick.  If you can’t agree on it, then we would discuss the process, the cost and the likelihood of success. 

Different judges have different biases, and we would have to address that issue and which judge you might have. As you go through the process and you are assigned the judge, we would then really hammer home that issue the way that judge wants to hear it.   We would minimize any problems in your case. What that judge would want not to hear, not that they want to minimize but we would want to minimize and to maximize the issues that would help you with each particular judge.  

I have been doing this a long time, 28 years.  I have been in front of these judges a lot. I know what the law is.  We will hopefully settle your case without litigation. But if it’s necessary, we are going to maximize your chance of winning, and I am going to tell you how to do it.  We will appear in front of the judge and if it doesn't settle before the hearing, then we are going to maximize your chance at winning that hearing. 

Children of divorce often have their own opinions about who they want to live with.   Do the courts take children’s wishes into consideration when determining custody?  At what age can children express their wishes to the court?  Kevin Zlock, a Bucks County child custody lawyer, answers these questions below. 

Question:  At what age is my child’s wish of who she wants to live with taken into consideration by the court? Does she have a say in who she wants to live with? 

Answer:  Kids shouldn't be part of the process. They shouldn't be in front of a custody evaluator.  They certainly should not be in court.  If they are, that’s a day they will probably never forget.  We don’t want the kids in court.  We don’t want them in front of an evaluator. 

Oftentimes, they have to go to an evaluation. The children, as they get older, they don’t have say, they don’t get to choose.  But what they want matters more the older they get, and what they want and why they want it matters as well.   

Let’s say you have a 14 year who says, “I want to live with one parent because they let me stay up til midnight every night on school nights.”  Well, that’s what I wanted to do when I was 14, but that might not be the right reason to have primary custody in one parent. 

So what they want and how old they are matters by degrees. The older they get, the more of what they want, the judge will consider. 

Of course, when they are 16 1/2, 17 years old, the judge will give a lot of consideration to it. 

But at what age do they actually pick what they want? It’s 18 years old, when they are no longer children. 

maybe talk about not following the schedule or withholding the children for lack of child support