Child Custody and Visitation — Modification of Attorney in Minneapolis, Minnesota
When can custody or parenting time be modified?
When can custody or parenting time be modified?
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custody and parenting time can be
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modified
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upon a showing of what’s known in legal
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terms
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a change of circumstances the simplest
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level a change of circumstances can mean
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that
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the child’s developmental needs have
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changed if there’s a dissolution or a
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child custody order when the child is
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one year old or two years old the
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parenting time is going to be different
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than it is if a child is 9 or 10 years
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old
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generally when they’re very young and
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developmentally still in a very early
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stage
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parenting time
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will largely reside with one of the
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parents when they’re an infant there
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might not even be
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um overnight parenting time but once a
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child is four or five years old you can
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go back to the court and seek a
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modification based on the fact that the
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child’s developmental needs have changed
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and more time would be awarded to
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the non-custodial the parent with the
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least amount of of parenting time by the
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time children are six seven eight years
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old we’ll often see equal parenting time
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schedules that have developed from
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schedules earlier where maybe the father
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had the children every other weekend
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or maybe one night a week and not even
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an overnight that’s the base level of
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modification
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if
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you want to modify legal custody
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that’s a little higher hurdle
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than parenting time alone
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because to modify legal custody say
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there’s an award of joint legal custody
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and one of the parents thinks it’s more
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appropriate
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for the custody order to be sole legal
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custody for
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for one of the parents
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you have to prove
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that
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circumstances have changed such that um
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the court could view the children’s
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development
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to be at risk
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they call it endangerment is another
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word for that so if they’re if you can
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show there’s neglect if you can show
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that they’re not getting their vaccines
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on time if you can show that
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there’s
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domestic abuse or sexual abuse if you
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can show um other
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types of
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things
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that say that the new partner of the of
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the other parent
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is is violent and the children are
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witnessing acts of domestic violence
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that’s grounds for modifying legal
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custody but it’s a very high hurdle it’s
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not going to happen under a court order
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unless you can you know make the
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threshold case
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that uh these children are their their
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psychological or their physical or
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mental health
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intellectual development is all at stake
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and is being harmed for instance the
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parent isn’t getting the children to
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school on time or they’re absent 20
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times a semester grounds to change legal
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custody
Minneapolis, MN family law attorney Michael Fink explains when and why custody or parenting time can be modified.
