Wilmington Child Custody & Visitation Lawyer

There are two main types of child custody in North Carolina. These are:

• Physical Custody – the location where the child will reside.
• Legal Custody – the decisions that must be made on behalf of the child.

Both parents generally have joint legal custody so that they can make decisions involving education, religion, and healthcare. Our child custody lawyer will explain these issues in more detail when you have a consultation.

Physical custody may be determined using several factors:

• Age of the child
• Which parent has historically been the primary caregiver
• Physical and emotional condition of the child
• Location of the child’s friends
• Time spent living in the current house
• Disabilities or required special care

Younger children are more apt to remain in the care of the parent who has been providing the most consistent care.

It is unusual for a parent to be denied visitation with their child. In situations where the parent has been deemed unfit, however, the court will decide visitation on a case-by-case basis. A parent may be considered unfit only for a handful of reasons, such as if the parent is a convicted felon, drug or alcohol dependent, or has been convicted of harming a child.

To be denied visitation, a parent must be proven unfit to care for their child. This can be difficult and complicated because, in some cases, there simply isn’t enough proof available due to reasons such as the parent not being found guilty of a crime.

The court will review the various issues involved in the case to decide how to resolve it. Sometimes the answer is supervised visitation. Supervised visitation requires one parent to have another neutral party with them at all times during a visit. This can make visits safer and less worrisome; however, it can also prove to be more complicated. Sometimes, a parent may be allowed limited visits, and sometimes, overnight visits are denied.