Custody Agreements

I find myself wondering if people fully read their custody agreements. You see when we get them i feel people pay the most attention to The Regular Time Share Periods and Holidays. They don't get into specifics because they feel those are not important. Yet if you were to take out your agreement and find that you share Joint Legal Custody of your children, well then your in for a big surprise. After doing research and comparing Karl's along with several others to mine, i found that its pretty standard in all. Still most parents do not follow these simple instructions. Its long but I do encourage you to read and at the end find out what your consequences are. Its not pretty.......

1. LEGAL CUSTODY
A. The parent shall have JOINT LEGAL CUSTODY of the child/children. In exercising joint legal custody, the parents shall share in the responsibility and confer in good faith on matters concerning the health, education and welfare of the children.

1) Each parent shall notify the other of the name and address of each health practitioner who examines or treats any of the children; such notification to be made within 3 days of the commencement of the first such treatment or examination.

2) Limited to emergency situations, each parent shall be authorized to take any and all actions necessary to protect the health and welfare of the children, including, but not limited to consent to EMERGENCY surgical procedures or treatment. The parent authorizing such emergency treatment shall notify the other parent as soon as possible of the emergency situation and of all procedures or treatment administered to any of the children.

3) Each parent shall have access to the children's school, medical and dental records and the right to consult with those professionals providing services to the children.

4) Each parent shall be designated as a person the children's school is to contact in the event of an emergency.

5) Each parent shall keep the other advised at all times of his/her current residence address, telephone numbers (home and work), the children's school, and the location of any place where the children will be spending any extended period of time four days or longer.

B. In exercising joint legal custody, the parents must consult in making decisions on the following matters:

1) Enrollment in or leaving a particular private or public school or day care center.
2) Participation in particular religious activities or institutions.
3) Beginning or ending psychiatric, psychological, or other mental health counseling or therapy.
4) Selection of a doctor, dentist, or other health professional (except in emergency situations).
5) Participation in extracurricular activities.
6) Out-of-country or out-of-state travel

C. The consequences of not consulting the other parent may be:

1) FAILURE TO COOPERATE IN THESE MATTERS COULD RESULT IN SOLE LEGAL CUSTODY BEING AWARDED TO ONE PARENT.

D. In all other matters, in exercising joint legal custody, the parents may act alone, as long as the action does not conflict with any orders concerning the custody of the children.




So all in all this is just the basic written in most. I used the term children throughout only because I have 2. I do however urge all to reread their agreements. You will find that most of you or your ex are in violation. You will also find more to custody agreements that break things down on a individual basis, IE Physical Custody, Visitation, Holidays/Special Days/Vacations, Transportation/Exchanges, Telephone Guideline's, Generally, Restraints on Conduct and Instructions from the Court. I might throughout the week touch ground on these issues to . Honestly the ones I listed above are the are the main mistakes that parents make that cause them to loose custody of their children. All to often parents play selfish roles. They take on the God complex and believe that they and only they make the decisions. This is the road to that's leads to many downfall.