Child Custody Attorney Palatine

Child Custody Attorney Palatine

Whether you are facing a divorce that involves children, you have post-divorce child custody concerns, or you are facing a child custody issue with a parent whom you were never married to, the matter is too important not to consult with an experienced child custody attorney in Palatine. It’s worth noting that the State of Illinois has replaced the term child custody with parenting time (what you likely think of as physical custody) and parental responsibility (what you likely think of as legal custody), but the meanings have not changed.

Parental Responsibility

Parental responsibility can be either sole or joint, and it refers to who will be making the important decisions in your children’s lives, including those that relate to the following:

• Their education
• Their religious upbringing
• Their medical care and treatment 
• Their extracurricular activities  

Parenting Time

Parenting time can also be either sole or joint, but it is rare for the court to cut one parent completely out of his or her children’s lives (barring a significant reason for doing so). When it comes to parenting time, there are two basic options that include:

• The children live primarily with one parent and have what amounts to a visitation schedule with the other. 
• The children split their time nearly equally with both parents. 

Concerns Related to Parenting Time

If you are facing an issue that relates to your parenting time or to your parental responsibilities, it is obviously an important matter. Further, these matters are rarely static. For example, a parenting time schedule that worked for you and your children when you were first divorced may have become obsolete over the years, and a modification may be in order. Whatever your concern is – if it involves your children – you are well-advised to seek the professional legal counsel of an experienced child custody attorney. 

Child Support

The matter of child support can be interrelated with your parenting time terms. In Illinois (and every other state), both parents are required to help support their children financially, and this responsibility is addressed by child support. If one parent becomes the primary custodial parent with whom the children reside the majority of the time, the other parent will typically pay child support – that is calculated according to state guidelines – to him or her. But because each parent’s financial obligation is predicated on his or her financial ability to pay, the higher earner is generally required to pay child support to the other parent (even if the children split their time equally between both parents).  

Don’t Wait to Consult with an Experienced Child Custody Attorney in Palatine

If you’re facing an issue that relates to parenting time and/or parental responsibility, you need a dedicated child custody attorney in Palatine on your side. The impressive legal team at Andrea Heckman Law is well aware of the importance of these weighty issues, and we have the experience, drive, and legal insight to help. For more information, please don’t hesitate to contact us today.