North Central Florida Divorce Lawyers Assisting With Parenting Plans
Determining how children will be raised is never an easy issue, especially when the parents are in the middle of a divorce. Each parent's legal responsibilities and obligations in child custody, visitation and child support have traditionally been dealt with in divorce decrees. However, as the Florida Supreme Court has recognized, many divorcing couples need a way to deal formally with a variety of parenting issues that are not so easily spelled out in a court order.
Today, many Florida parents are required to submit detailed parenting plans, which address a multitude of topics related to the children's care and upbringing. A skilled family law firm can help you explore, negotiate and draft each component of your parenting plan during divorce action or afterward.
At the Law Office of Richard M. Knellinger, our lawyers help families develop sound, workable parenting plans by carefully assessing the children's needs and promoting their best interests. Our goal is to help our clients, their children, and their former spouses agree on a plan everyone can live with.
Contact our offices today to schedule an appointment about your parenting plan.
Focus your parenting plan on your children's needs and best interests
A parenting plan is meant to thoroughly address the rights and responsibilities of the parents and every major issue related to upbringing and care. In addition to addressing legal custody, primary physical custody, visitation and child support, a parenting plan can include decisions about who will have decision-making authority, and how disputes will be resolved, in specific areas of care such as:
- Each parent’s access to the children
- Medical and healthcare decisions
- Education decisions
- Psychological assessments
- Moral and religious training
- Social interactions and extracurricular activities
Parenting plans are meant to be meticulous and cover a child's needs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, so they can be somewhat complicated. With practical insight developed over years of practice, our attorneys can help you consider each issue thoroughly and suggest solutions that balance the children's needs with the practical needs of both parents.
Our attorneys will listen carefully to you so we can fully understand your children's world and your own goals and concerns. Working closely with you, we will develop a parenting plan that addresses your practical situation and meets the requirements of Florida law. We will then help you reach a settlement with your present of former spouse, or present a proposed parenting plan to the court.
Parenting plans are designed to provide stability, relieve ambiguity and ensure that both the parents and the children know what to expect. Parenting plans not only reduce the need for parents to return to court to clarify these issues, the plans also give parents an opportunity to seriously consider important issues that might not otherwise be addressed at the time of a divorce.
Contact our offices today and schedule an appointment to speak with one of our experienced family law attorneys. Please fill out our Parenting Schedule and Responsibility Worksheet [Outbound link to Parenting Schedule and Responsibility Worksheet] (PDF) and bring it with you to your appointment.
