Louisiana Family Law: Civil Code Article 134(6) and its Applicability to a Divorce Attorney

This article deals with Louisiana Civil Code Art. 134(6): “The moral fitness of each party, insofar as it affects the welfare of the child.”  It is probably somewhat obvious to the casual observer that the “moral fitness” of the parents will be analyzed by a divorce attorney in determining what precisely the custodial arrangement will be.  It is easy to think of a situation where one parent has a very dangerous or criminal background, and where subsequently a court might determine that this background makes them unfit to have custody of the child.
Section (6) is slightly more nuanced however, in that it only considers “moral fitness” as it relates to the “affect on the welfare of the child.”  This is an important distinction.  Just because one parent can show that the other parent has suffered a moral lapse in the past that does not automatically mean that the accusing parent will gain custody of the children.  A divorce attorney may need to ask the question: does this moral lapse or failure indicate that there may be a larger problem with the parent?  Is it one that makes them unfit to have custody?
Answering that question is not always extremely easy.  Like many other aspects of custody determinations by the court, such a judgment will probably be made in connection with many other factors.  That is to say, it is easy to imagine at least one case where a past moral “failure” may not be determinative in a court’s decision of where to grant custody of the child.  For the most part, however, a divorce attorney is unlikely to penalize anything that did not affect the child.
For example, let us say the father of a child was convicted of armed robbery twenty-five years ago.  Subsequently, the father served his time in jail and was released on good behavior.  Let us say ten years later he had a child with his wife, and five years after that, the two parents split and entered into a custody battle for the child.  Will the previous conviction disallow the father to have custody of his child?
It is impossible to say for sure, but given that the conviction was so long ago, and assuming that the father has not had any more recent run-ins with the law, a divorce attorney would likely urge a court to overlook the fact that he has a criminal record.  This might be because, arguably, the conviction does not have any relevance “insofar as it affects the welfare of the child.”  
Obviously, if one parent has demonstrable moral failures in the recent past, such as felony convictions, and those failures indicate to the court that this parent very well might continue to exhibit this type of behavior in the future, than section (6) of Article 134 could easily come into play in determining custody.
Will Beaumont is a divorce attorney in New Orleans. This article is informational, not legal advice.