Child Custody and Visitation

Child custody and visitation disputes can be emotionally and financially taxing on everyone involved. Child custody may be an issue when parties are married and going through a divorce or between parents not married to each other. At the Law Offices of Evan Braunstein, Century City divorce attorney Evan Braunstein will work hard to defend and protect your parental rights. Our unique fixed fee billing structure ensures that we will concentrate on your case, minimizing delays and seeking final resolution as efficiently as possible.

The two types of child custody in Century City are legal custody and physical custody. Parents can have joint or sole legal custody and joint or sole physical custody. Legal custody is the responsibility for making decisions regarding a child’s health, education or welfare. Sole legal custody means that one parent has the right to make these decisions. Joint legal custody indicates a shared responsibility, and means that either parent can make these decisions.

Physical custody is determined by where the child actually lives. Sometimes, parents share joint physical custody and the child or children spend a portion of time living with each parent. Other times, one parent has sole physical custody. In these sole physical custody situations, sometimes the non-custodial parent has visitation with the child or children. Other times, he or she has no visitation at all. Legal and physical custody are distinct from each other so that, in practice, custody situations can be joint legal/ joint physical, joint legal/ sole physical, sole legal/ joint physical, or sole legal/ sole physical.

Custody and visitation matters include the initial custody determination, modifications of custody and visitation orders, and “move away cases” wherein one parent wishes to relocate to another county, state or country. Custody and visitation arrangements should be resolved in a way that is best for everyone involved including the children and both parents, and it is always best to try to come to an agreement out of court. At the Law Offices of Evan Braunstein, a skilled Century City child custody lawyer will work to craft creative and mutually acceptable agreements that protect our clients’ parental rights while minimizing court involvement and the impact on children involved in the dispute. We are experienced working with child support evaluators, mediators, and therapists. Although we believe that it is best for parties to reach an agreement on custody and visitation, when this is not feasible we will aggressively present your case and protect your interests in court.