In 2009 "The Custody and Visitation Guidelines Committee of the Family Law Advisory Group" revised the Statues relating to Child Custody and Visitation issues. In doing this, new terms replaced commonly used terms. Child Custody is now known as a "Parenting Plan" and Visitation is now referred to as Timesharing.
One of the reasons for the change in terms is to create a court order that addresses many child related issues at once, instead of custody, visitation, support and other issues being separate issues. The objective in adopting Parenting Plans is to promote what is in the best interests of minor children, because there was a growing tendency of parents to bicker extensively over every possible custody issue, thus putting minor children in the middle of many disputes over long periods of time.
Parenting plans have given the judge the authority to make rulings in what he or she believes to be in the best interest of minor children that are involved. Unless just cause is proven in court that conditions or circumstances exist that the visitation rights of a parent should be limited, supervised, or denied, the judge will typically favor a parenting plan that provides a viable and continuous amount of time for the children to spend with each parent.
Parenting plans can be simple or very complex. They may be so complex at times that even issues regarding the religion the minor child will be raised in may sometimes be an issue that must be resolved.
In a nutshell, any type of decisions that affect the minor child may be fair game to be resolved in a parenting plan. In the court's eyes, it is better to resolve all issues at once rather than constantly put the children in the middle of many separate disputes over a long period of time.
LAW OFFICE OF
GAIL CHEATWOOD, P.A.
2000 S. Florida Ave., Lakeland, Florida 33801
PHONE: 863.686.0975