For many of us, nothing is more important that the mental and physical health of our children. This is profoundly impacted by each child’s relationship with his or her parents.
As a parent, you want to play an essential role in their growth and development. You want an attorney sufficiently experienced to navigate the waters of a child custody agreement. You want an attorney that can help craft an optimal settlement, ideally in manner that is cordial and civilized.
Mark Gubinsky has 16 years of experience working with families in similar circumstances. While every child custody case is unique, when you’ve been doing this for 16 years, you can anticipate the potential potholes, you have creative solutions for knotty situations, you know how to get the best possible outcome.
Child custody arrangements typically work better when both parents are in mutual agreement. This is far preferable to having a child custody edict delivered in court by a judge.
If individuals cannot resolve custody, the court will determine physical and legal custody arrangements for each child. Physical custody addresses the living arrangements of the child, and responsibilities associated with childcare from day to day. Legal custody covers the rights of parents to make decisions for a child about matters such as education and health care.
Custody is typically either joint custody or primary custody. Both relate to physical custody and/or legal custody. With joint custody, both parents have either or both of physical custody and/or joint legal decision making. With primary custody, the child lives primarily with one parent.
For parents who cannot, or will not, agree on child custody arrangements, the court will make a determination. This determination takes into account several social and economic factors, including the location of each parent's home, the role of each parent as caregiver in the past, the quality of local schools, and the finances of each parent. The personal preferences of older children are also taken into account.
Mark will work diligently with you and your spouse’s attorney to design a child custody (and child support) arrangement that is reasonable and agreeable to both you and your spouse.
That said, sometimes spouses are unreasonable, and the only way to produce a child custody or child support arrangement is to hash it out in court. When it comes to this, you can rest assured you are in good hands. Mark is a highly experienced and effective litigator who calmly makes persuasive arguments. Mark will defend your rights to the fullest, whether for child support or child custody.
More Information on Child Custody and Child Support in Pittsburgh
Support Guidelines (from www.childsupport.state.pa.us)
Click here for the full text
The Pennsylvania Support Guidelines provide direction for setting the amount of a support order and were established with the concept that children of separated, divorced, or single parents should receive the same amount of parental support as children whose parents are together. The Support Guidelines make financial support of a child a primary obligation and are based upon the reasonable needs of the child and the ability of the non-custodial parent to provide support. The Support Guidelines are also used to determine obligations in spousal support cases.
The Support Guidelines are in the Pennsylvania Rules of Civil Procedure 1910.16-1 through 1910.16-7. Click here for detailed information about the Support Guidelines.
Support Guidelines:
Federal regulation requires states to review their child support guidelines at least once every four years [45 CFR 302.56]. Pennsylvania conducted its most recent review, contracted to Policy Studies Inc., June 30, 2008.
Click for a glossary of Child Support terms
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