Robert Gigliotti’s Role in California Child Custody and Visitation Agreement

California has a well developed and complicated set of family laws. A typical agreement on child custody and visitation in California goes through four phases:

• Temporary hearing
• Meditation
• Evaluation
• Trial

This post discusses these phases and concludes with a note on how Robert Gigliotti can help you through each of them.

Temporary hearing

Family court sets out with a temporary hearing after either parent has filed for a divorce. During temporary hearing the court considers several legal aspects of the case and decides on a temporary custody.

This custody usually goes to the parent still living in the marital home. At times the decision on temporary custody can indicate what the court thinks is the more suitable for permanent custody. But a correlation between temporary and permanent custody cannot be taken for granted.

Mediation

As the divorce case proceeds, the court orders both parents to accept mediation from a professional mediator. The mediator is a third party who helps the parents communicate with each other and resolve their differences. If mediation is successful parents do not have to undergo another trial for their children’s custody. If parents fail to reach an agreement between themselves, the court orders custody evaluation.

Evaluation

A court evaluation involves a social worker, or a professional psychologist, or a health professional whose job is to talk to parents and children to evaluate what is in the best interest of the children. This evaluation report is then presented to the court.

Trial

California courts go through the evaluation results and listen to contesting parties’ arguments before deciding on custody. Courts place high importance on a child’s age and their emotional attachment.

Role of Robert Gigliotti
California family lawyer Robert Gigliotti is a veteran in child custody and visitation cases. He will use his deep knowledge of the law to guide you through each step of the process. Robert’s aim is to come to a custody and visitation agreement that protects your and your children’s financial interests. His aim is to place your and your children’s interest above all and do whatever is in the best interests of you and your children.

You can learn more about Robert Gigliotti and how he can help you on our website: http://www.gigliottilalaw.com/.

Child Custody and Visitation Agreement

In the eyes of the law, child custody and visitation agreements are considered legal binding agreements, and making any breach would be a criminal offense. The issues involving children are the most debated and contentious part of a divorce. When the final decree or final agreement is made by the court, the involved parties have to follow those orders otherwise they may have to face major legal repercussions.

The custody and visitation agreements have many variations to suit the needs of the parents and the child. Either parents can develop their own custody agreement between them (with mutual understandings) with the help of a family lawyer or they can establish custody by filing a petition for the orders in the family court. Every family has their own unique conditions and situations which will dictate the type of agreements you should have.  Here are few custody types which can help you to decide what kind of agreement you need.

Joint custody: Joint custody is the custody agreement between both the parents equally. This type of custody splits the child’s time equally between both the parents. It is the most preferred custody by the court for the interests of the minor.

Primary Custody: This is very common form of custody in which one parent takes full-time custody of the child. This kind of custody is warranted when joint custody is not an alternative or if one parent is not interested in taking physical custody or when the court declares one parent unfit to maintain custody. When parents opt for this type of custody, it is advisable that they develop a visitation agreement so that the non-custodial parent can spend some time with the child on a regular basis.

Legal custody: This kind of custody covers the major decisions regarding the child’s education, medical care, religious upbringing, other financial affairs ,legal rights and duties. If both parents cannot come to an agreement, they submit their dispute to the family court for third-party mediation. There is another way out for this kind of situation; the parents can seek the services of family lawyer. The family lawyer can provide a mediation session to resolve the issue. The mediation session is kept confidential and private.

The family attorney can preserve your rights as going through divorce and obtaining custody are very serious matters. Only a family attorney can protect you and your children’s financial rights. Only a family lawyer can guide you through the family court system, prioritize your interests and offer high quality services with affordable fees.

Why You Need Mediation in Child Custody and Visitation

You must have told your children so many times that you do not want to hear whose fault it was and you must have wanted then to play fair and stop fighting. Therefore you can thoroughly understand how California’s family lawyers work. Only a good divorce and family lawyer can guide you the duties and rights on your child after the divorce with your spouse.

In California, when a couple gets separated or get divorced, the court issues an order for the child custody and visitation based on the best interest of the minor child. The child custodies are of many types but the court tries that the parents should have a joint custody i.e. the child will stay with both the parents as per the set schedule. In most of the cases the court attempts to preserve the status quo, since the interest and stability of the minor is of crucial importance. The status quo will be continued with custody and visitation rights on the child with some exceptions like emergency, where the court can modify the custody and visitation just to protect the interest of the minor.  In some circumstances Court can even provide the sole responsibility and custody of the child to one parent.

You can thoroughly understand the theme behind the disclosure obligations in California, if you ever told your child to brush twice a day and been asked why, to which you answered that keeps your teeth healthy and problem free (secretly you thinking all you want them to be away of dental problems so that you don’t have to miss your work…right!). Similarly the courts do not want to be burden and re-doing the trails. Therefore the gigliottilalaw is providing mandatory mediation. California requires that parties in contested litigation attempt mediation with a facilitator, a specially trained fairly neutral third party in an make an effort to resolve their disagreements.

Encino mediation centre is serving as Los Angeles Superior Court Settlement Conference officer since 1995; therefore they have excellent experience in settling civil and family disputes through mediation. The mediation is an informal process which hardly takes much time, which can be completed in a day or two. This process actually works and save the interest of both the parties by keeping them away from the hassles of court trials.