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Custody Issues
Custody issues can arise when parents are divorced, separated, or were never married. The issues relevant to custody when the parents divorce are addressed in the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act. Under that Act, the court needs to decide which parent will have custody based upon the child's best interests. This is an extremely broad standard and the court can consider many relevant facts in reaching its determination of "best interests."
Generally, the courts encourage reasonable and liberal visitation rights for the non-custodial parent. If the court finds that the custodial parent has proved by clear and convincing evidence that a restriction is necessary to prevent a serious endangerment to the child's mental, physical or moral well-being, the court would allow the visitation of the non-custodial parent to be restricted.
In McLean County, if the parties cannot agree on any visitation or custody issue, they must first have the matter mediated before the court will decide the custody case. The mediation process is an attempt to have the parties reach an agreement by adding a third party mediator into the discussions. Although the mediation is not binding with either party, most custody and visitation disputes can be resolved at that juncture if not before.
If the custody case still needs to be tried, it generally will require an extensive amount of work, investigation, and preparation. Possible witnesses can include teachers, counselors, other family members, or others who witnessed events that may affect the court's decision on who would be entitled to custody. Given the broad discretion the court has to interpret what is in the "best interests" of the child, it is difficult to come up with any generalized rules that will apply in every case.
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