| Retroactive Child Support Awards |
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| In most states, initial child support awards may be made retroactive to the date of filing and modifications may be retroaction to the date a modification is requested. In some states, retroactivity is mandatory, and in others, it is discretionary.
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| Modification of Custody based on Parental Financial Resources |
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| Both parents are required to contribute toward the support of a child. The amount of support is based on the income of the parents, with adjustments for certain other obligations such as day care or extraordinary health expenses. For the most part, courts do not consider modifying custody based solely on a parent's financial resources, but such resources may be a factor where a change in circumstances can be shown. More... |
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| Child Custody Mediation |
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| Mediation is one of a number of processes, known collectively as alternative dispute resolution or ADR, which are available for use by parties who have disagreements with one another that have traditionally been handled by the formal procedures of the legal system, but who wish to avoid the formality and expense of a court proceeding in seeking to resolve their differences. Unlike another well-known alternative dispute resolution process, arbitration, in which parties present the same types of evidence and adversary arguments they would employ in court before one or more disinterested third parties known as arbitrators, who then make a decision called an award that is generally binding on the parties to the dispute, the parties to a mediation procedure, with the assistance of a disinterested third party called a mediator, attempt to reach a voluntary agreement settling their differences between themselves. Mediation has recently received increasing attention as a method of resolving disputes in a number of areas of the law, including child custody cases and other family law matters. More... |
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| Expert Witnesses in Child Custody Proceedings |
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| The rules of evidence employed by the courts in legal actions set out the qualifications for expert witnesses, which may be said in a general way to consist of a level of education, training, or experience that has created in such a witness a degree of knowledge about a particular scientific or technical subject that is greater than the knowledge of such a subject possessed by people lacking such education, training, or experience. Unlike most witnesses, whose testimony in court proceedings is limited to factual matters actually known to them, expert witnesses are permitted, based on the factual evidence that has been presented in court, to express their opinions on issues related to the technical subjects within their areas of expertise. Extensive use of expert witnesses is made in both civil and criminal proceedings in the United States. More... |
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| Joint Physical Custody Awards |
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| In most states, "joint physical custody" means that each of the parents shall have significant periods of physical custody of a child. Joint physical custody is shared by the parents in such a way so as to assure the child of frequent and continuing contact with both parents. It does not require that both parents have equal time with the child. More... |
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