Nashville Child Custody Modification Attorney
Experienced Child Custody Modification Attorneys in Nashville, Tennessee
A legal parenting plan can help you define where your children will live and clearly outline both parents’ legal decision-making rights, which can be updated mutually by both parents whenever they feel like it. If both you and your ex-spouse agree to make a few changes, they can do so within one or two weeks or even years from your current order with the help of a Nashville child custody modification attorney.
Parents are given a lot of freedom to decide what’s in their kids’ best interest. Most local judges don’t challenge an agreement between parents until it’s egregious. At Rogers, Shea & Spanos, Helen Sfikas Rogers can help you file an official order that modifies your current parenting time and verify that the updated agreement is in the best interest of your children.
Suppose the judge finds something in your current agreement that does not seem to be in your child’s best interest, like having zero contact with another parent when there have been no allegations of substance abuse, physical abuse, or neglect. In that case, the court might ask you for more information about your current situation. A Nashville child custody modification attorney can help you assert your child’s needs in and out of the court and ensure all their best interests are upheld.
Some Common Disagreements
A parent may wish to modify a parenting plan without the other parent’s agreement, or they may want to change certain aspects of their current program differently.
For instance, both parties may agree they want equal time with their kids, but one parent may prefer a week-on/week-off schedule while the other party may favor a program where they get to switch every weekend and have set days to spend with their children during the week.
Your Child’s Best Interest Is Essential.
The court is obligated to maximize each parent’s parenting time, and the primary reason it would not do that is if it concludes for a specific reason that this arrangement will not be in the child’s best interest. Suppose you honestly believe it’s not in the best interest of your kids for the other parent to have extra parenting time. In that case, you must consider petitioning the court for a modification in your parental custody.
You must think about everything in the context of the best interest of your kids and speak with a professional Nashville child custody modification attorney because there are a lot of statutory factors that a judge will look at. You must ensure that you do the analysis the correct way since what is important to you may not be necessary to the court, or you may have to tweak the substance of how you structure your overall argument.
However, you will not find a slam dunk case, and there are no guarantees of your outcome. A professional attorney can help put you in the best position to modify your child custody successfully.
A Material Change in Your Circumstances
If both parents request the court to change their existing custody order, and if they don’t have an agreement, they need to prove there has been a significant and continuing change in their circumstances since the last order. If not much has changed since your previous order, the Judge will not grant any new modifications. Some common examples of material change include:
- Domestic violence
- Relocation of one of the parents
- The kids are older and now have a preference
- Some breakdown in communication between both parties
- Issues related to substance abuse
These and all other considerations require hiring a professional Nashville child custody modification attorney.
A Nashville Child Custody Modification Attorney Can Help You Today
All decisions involving custody and care of a child must be in their best interests. Proving that you and your circumstance have undergone a lot of change in the past few years can be a little challenging without hiring a qualified Nashville child custody modification attorney.
Hiring an experienced Rogers, Shea & Spanos attorney can give you a significant advantage in advocating for your needs in court. Contact our experts today at 888-521-9952 if you want to learn more about making changes to your current child-sharing order or would like to book an appointment.