Child Custody, Access and Support
At Sutton Law, we have the necessary skills and knowledge to protect your parenting rights. We are helping family law clients in Toronto, Vaughan, Richmond hill, Mississauga, Ottawa, Georgina and the surrounding areas. We have the necessary skills and knowledge to protect your parenting rights.
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What is Child Custody and Access in Ontario
Each parent has an equal right and obligation to participate in the upbringing of their kid. In a two-parent, intact family, the decision-making is shared by the parents. When parents choose to divorce or separate, they must decide how to split or share their individual parental obligations and rights.
Custody, thus, is defined as a term used for the right to make decisions regarding the child. This individual would have the final say in regards to their religion, school, medical information and etc.
Upon separation or divorce, if one parent is awarded sole custody, the other parent usually gets the right of access, also known as visitation rights. Depending on what is in the child's best interests, access visits can either be unsupervised or monitored. The access parent receives the kid at this location, and nobody else is required to be present during their time together. A common access schedule has the kid spending one or two evenings or nights each week, as well as alternating weekends, away from the parent who is responsible for their primary care and management.
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What is Sole custody?
Sole custody is when only one parent is awarded the decision making right for the child. They have the legal right and the responsibility to make decisions they think are best for the child. The child usually lives with said parent.
Sole custody is usually awarded to families that have a difficult or strained relationship with the other parent, such as violence, abuse, proven use of dangerous substance and or clearly established signs of poor judgement making.
Sole custody limits the child's access to one of their parents, which is most of the time what is best for said child, taking into account safety concerns during the separation or divorce.
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What is Joint Custody?
In Ontario, joint custody is when parents share the rights and responsibilities of custody, despite living apart. Joint custody gives both parents equal say over major decisions concerning their children. In order for joint custody to work efficiently, the parents must cooperate and maintain a harmonious relationship between them.
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What is Shared Custody?
As opposed to other custodial arrangements, share custody refers to how much time is spent with each parent to determine each parent's child support responsibility. Children must spend at least 40% of their time with each parent under the Child Support Guidelines. Parts of vacations, weekends, and overnights can count toward the 40% time.
