Child Custody & Parenting Time

Changing the Shape of Your Family

When a divorce involves a child, we believe in taking the perspective that we are changing the shape of your family. In most cases, it is important for the child to maintain a relationship with both parents. While the shape of the family will change in that you and your former spouse will no longer live under the same roof, your child will still view you both as part of their family. At Reinheimer Law Office, our goal is to work closely with you and your child to create the shape your family will take for the future.

With many years of experience on our side, our law firm understands the various child custody options available. We know how to find the option that works best for you and your family.
Custody has two components, physical custody and legal custody:

• Physical Custody: This is the component that addresses where the child's primary residence will be.
• Legal Custody: This part ties into who will make decisions about a child's health care, religion, school and other similar matters.

Both of these components can be divided into either sole or joint custody:

• Sole Custody: Sole physical custody means that the child primarily resides with one parent. Sole legal custody means that all of the child's legal decisions are made by one parent.
• Joint Custody: Joint physical custody means that the child may split time between both households, although the split may not be equal. Joint legal custody means that both parents must work together to make legal decisions for the child.

Parenting time, also referred to as child visitation, refers to the arrangements made to ensure that both the custodial and non-custodial parent remain part of a child's life. Decisions made about parenting time arrangements are closely related to how physical custody is arranged. Parenting time can also be an issue where paternity is known, but the parents were never married.

In addition to handling divorce custody cases, we can address paternity and legal separation custody cases, as well as issues involving unmarried parents.