What is Child Custody Agreement Drafting?
A child custody agreement is a legally-binding document that provides information for how parents can continue to care for their children after they have been separated or divorced. It should focus on looking after the children and providing them with high standards of care.
Read the rest of this article for tips on how to draft a child custody agreement. We’ll explore key terms to include in the document, how to draft it professionally, and why you should consider hiring a qualified lawyer to assist you with the process.
What are Key Terms in a Child Custody Agreement?
A child custody agreement usually contains essential information, such as:
- Residential information. State the child’s daily living arrangements for clarity.
- Legal custody. This takes the form of either joint or sole custody. It specifies which party has the authority to make the child’s major life decisions.
- Parenting schedule. Specify visitation schedules for both parties, including on weekends and vacations.
- Decision making. How parents will communicate and handle decisions should be included to prevent disputes.
- Dispute resolution. If there are disputes, parties should know how to resolve them. List a dispute-resolution method such as arbitration.
What are Tips for Child Custody Agreement Drafting?
When drafting a child custody agreement, you should pay attention to the following things to prevent disputes and protect your interests.
Define Care Schedules
You want to provide detailed information about how the child will be cared for, such as which parent will look after them during the holidays, and state their day-to-day arrangements. Explain the custody split for when the parents will each have time to look after the child, such as if it’s a 50/50 split.
Address Major Decisions
Your agreement must stipulate exactly how the parents will make decisions for the child, such as regarding their schooling and medical care. Specify what decisions are sole and joint, to prevent disputes.
Customize Your Arrangement
Consider the child’s specific needs and age when writing up terms in a child custody agreement. This will ensure that the terms make sense for your child and family setup, while preventing unnecessary challenges.
Define Transportation Details
An important detail when drafting a child custody agreement is how the children will be transported and exchanged between parents for visitation. For example, it should specify on what days the children will be exchanged and where exchanges will occur. If parents don’t get along, the agreement could make provisions for neutral locations for exchanges.
Include Discipline Rules
To prevent separated or divorced parents from disagreeing over discipline, they should agree on how they will parent the child despite living in separate households. Specify rules regarding phone usage, curfews, and more.
Should You Hire a Lawyer to Draft a Child Custody Agreement?
It’s not always easy to know what to include in your child custody agreement, as there could be aspects of the arrangement that you fail to include, resulting in issues such as disputes.
Hiring a lawyer to draft your child custody agreement is advisable. A lawyer will help you during the drafting process in various ways, such as by:
- Structuring the agreement around the child’s best interests and to ensure stability.
- Establishing parenting arrangements that are fair to both parties, such as clarifying how parents will schedule caregiving responsibilities.
- Addressing how small and big decisions are made by parties, such as regarding education, healthcare, religion, travel, and other matters.
- Dealing with communication. A lawyer will outline how parents should communicate with each other, ensuring that it’s constructive and reduces their risk of disputes.
- Addressing issues that could occur in the future, such as relocation and travel. They’ll provide guidelines and rules so that there’s no uncertainty.
- Ensuring legal enforceability. A lawyer will use their expertise to make the agreement compliant with all relevant laws and court procedures.
- Protecting the child’s interests if circumstances change. They’ll include provisions in the child custody agreement for changing arrangements as the child’s needs change.
- Reviewing an agreement. If you’ve already drafted a child custody agreement, you can hire a lawyer to review it for you so that you don’t miss anything important and ensure that it includes what’s best for the child in the arrangement.
Where to Find and Hire a Lawyer for Child Custody Agreement Drafting
If you’ve decided to hire a lawyer to draft your child custody agreement, you might wonder where to find one who’s reliable and reputable. Instead of asking friends for lawyer recommendations or calling traditional law firms in your area, you can make use of an online legal platform that provides you with access to experienced lawyers.
ContractsCounsel is one of the largest online legal marketplaces that connects you to a curated network of lawyers who have been vetted on the platform. Lawyers on the platform have contract drafting and review experience to help you.
Here is how you can ask a lawyer on the platform to draft your child custody agreement.
- On your device, go to the ContractsCounsel marketplace.
- Select ‘One-time project’ and ‘Create or update contract.’ Or, select ‘Contract review.’
- Post your project for free. Try to include information about your agreement to match with the right lawyer.
- Wait for bids. You’ll receive bids from lawyers directly on the platform.
- Review the platform’s lawyer information. This includes the lawyers’ location, credentials, years of experience, field of expertise, and client ratings for previous projects completed on the platform.
- Select a lawyer who matches your requirements and hire them to draft your child custody agreement for a flat fee.
