Child custody law is largely based upon article 134. This commentary goes through parts of this law and offers some analysis in order to further understand it.
In the state of Louisiana, one thing that the family court system takes very seriously is child custody matters. It may be obvious to the reader that the placement of a child in a loving, caring, and supportive home is absolutely crucial to the development of that child. If the spouses, the divorce lawyer or other attorney should take it upon themselves to work out a custody arrangement that benefits all parties involved—but most importantly the children. If they cannot reach a resolution, then it will be left to the courts to decide.
There are a few different sources of authority which a divorce lawyer may consult with regarding a child custody matter. One of the more comprehensive sources is Louisiana Civil Code article 134. Article 134 includes a dozen different factors for the court to consider. All twelve deal directly with the child's present and future well-being as it would relate to a future home for that child. All twelve factors also have in common that they share one goal, one characteristic: the "best interests of the child" are of paramount concern.
Some of the factors deal with the social and scholastic history of the child. These particular factors may be more relevant if the child or children have reached adolescence. Nothing can be more damaging than uprooting a child from the life he or she has been living for the first ten to seventeen years of their life. If transplanting a toddler or pre-adolescent is tough on the child, transplanting a teenager is even tougher. Two subsections of article 134 confront this issue directly, numbers (8) and (9). Subsection (8) tells the court to consider the "home, school, and community history of the child," while section (9) actually instructs a court to ask the child what his or her preference is.
Of course, there are other considerations for a divorce lawyer as well. One of the more obvious ones is the relative fitness of each parent to execute their duties as mother or father. Subsections (1),(2),(3),(6),(7),and (12) deal with these types of analyses. They order the court to look into the moral fitness of the parent, the ability of the parent to provide food and material needs to the children, the emotional ties between a particular parent and their child, and mental or physical ailments which might jeopardize the parent's ability to parent effectively, and they also call for an examination of the parent's history of parenting.
Finally, some subsections of article 134 deal with intangibles such as the stability and consistency of family life offered by each parent, and also the cohesion of the family life where a child may be put. Oftentimes the best interests of the child are served by seeing them placed in an environment which fosters family-like values and situational outcomes.
A divorce lawyer or court may consider all twelve of these factors, along with extenuating circumstances such as a history of abuse at the hands of one parent, and also the willingness of the respective parents to encourage their children to maintain contact with the other parent.
Will Beaumont practices law in New Orleans. The above is just information and not legal advice.
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