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Few legal issues are as personal or as emotional as child custody matters. At Rominger & Associates we take your custody matter seriously, and we work with you to determine what is in the best interest of your children. We help clients understand what courts will do in a particular child custody case by using our experience and knowledge of how the various Courts handle these matters. Adequate representation can ensure the parent has the most time possible with their child. Failure to aggressively seek custody or to oppose custody for an adverse party could cause the entry of a court order that is not in your best interest or your child's best interest.

In Pennsylvania, child custody is divided on a case by case basis. One often hears the term legal custody, which refers to the ability of a parent to make legal or life decisions about a child. If the parents have joint legal custody, regardless of who has physical custody, both parents have a say in major schooling decisions, religious decisions, medical decisions and all other life changing or life shaping decisions. So, for instance, if a child needed surgery, both parents should be consulted. On the other hand, if the child needs a Band-Aid, the parent with physical custody should be able to make that decision on his or her own.

Physical custody is the portion of the court order that awards a parent the actual physical custody of the child for a period of time. While a parent has physical custody, they have control over the child physically and legally, subject only to the requirements of joint legal custody, if it exists. This essentially means the parent may take the child with them, discipline the child as necessary, take care of emergencies involving the child and otherwise act as a parent in all normal fashions, but again, if joint legal custody exists, the parent must also honor those principles and requirements. A parent with physical custody is responsible for that child's actions while in their custody and is responsible for the health, welfare and safety of that child.

Another frequent term heard is visitation. Visitation is not necessarily physical custody. An order to grant a parent visitation can be for visitation that is either supervised or unsupervised. The term visitation is often interchanged with the term physical custody and so it is frequently said that the parent who is going to exercise physical custody for a weekend has a "weekend visitation". The terms are often used interchangeably, even if incorrectly.

In Pennsylvania, custody can be initiated by filing a suit for custody in the Court of Common Pleas. Most courthouses have conciliation or mediation programs that the parties must then attend before there can be a court hearing. The purpose of these conciliation or mediation programs is to attempt to resolve the matter without submitting it to a trial judge. If an agreement cannot be reached in front of the conciliator and the parties' expectations are so different as to make any compromise impossible, a custody trial can be held.

A custody trial is similar to many other civil trials in that both sides can call witnesses and cross-examine them. It is a somewhat specialized trial as many special factors that go into determining what is in the best interests of the child. An experienced attorney can help the party produce the appropriate evidence and argue it in the appropriate way to help sway the trial judge to determine that the child's best interests is in staying primarily with one parent or the other, or in providing additional periods of custody to the parent seeking such.

No custody order is considered final, in so much as either party is free to modify it or attempt to modify it for any changed circumstance. One frequent reason to change a custody order occurs when the child comes of school age, and because of the physical location of the parents, a true split custody situation becomes impossible, and a school district must be chosen. Other reasons include one parent becoming more or less fit over time, the child's wishes or desires as they become older, or the health, welfare and safety of the child is threatened by one party or by a third party that one of the parties will not exclude from access to the child.

Sometimes, one parent in a shared or split custody situation, who is the primary custodian of the child decides to move a great distance to take a job or for other reasons important to that adult. The courts in Pennsylvania require permission to be granted for the parent to make that move, if a custody order is in place. If the non-custodial parent requests a hearing, one will be held on an emergency basis, in rapid fashion. This is called a Plowman hearing, named after a case called Plowman v. Plowman.

At a Plowman hearing, the court uses something called a Gruber Analysis, also named after a case, which requires the court to determine whether or not the move will incur substantial benefit to the parent and / or to child. Other factors including whether or not the move is being done in good faith and not to frustrate the custody process. Because of the specialized standards that this hearing entails, an experienced attorney can also make a difference in preventing such a move or facilitating such a move, depending on which party the attorney represents.

The above information on child custody is not decided to be all-inclusive, you should not rely upon it in representing yourself or others. All custody matters should be brought to the attention of an experienced attorney for consultation, and if necessary litigation.

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