While divorce ends a marriage, it doesn’t necessarily end the family. Even though ex-spouses may be ready to build new lives apart from each other, they may continue to maintain a shared relationship with their children. This relationship is expressed legally in both rights and responsibilities. In general, both parents have custodial rights and financial responsibilities for their children.
A custody agreement can help protect the custody rights of the estranged parents and ensure that both parents live up to their responsibilities to support their children. The custody agreement often recognizes the obligations of both parents to support their children and will detail how and under what circumstances each parent must contribute to the financial support of each child.
While there is no one-size-fits-all custody agreement, almost all New York custody agreements deal with both child custody and child support.
Child custody can be either legal or physical:
- Legal custody is the legal right to make decisions about the children. This includes important decisions in areas such as education, physical and mental health care and religion. New York courts strongly prefer to grant legal custody to both parents, though in some exceptional cases, they grant sole legal custody to only one parent.
- Physical custody relates to where the child actually resides. Again, the courts prefer that parents share physical custody. This usually means that the child lives primarily with one parent, with time for visitation during the week, on weekends and/or on holidays with the other parent.
There are many additional issues that can be dealt with in a custody agreement, such as the role of grandparents and matters relating to taxes and health care. Generally, a well thought-out custody agreement helps guide parents through the challenges of post-divorce child-rearing.
Over the years, I have helped countless clients in the crafting of custody agreements that have helped pave the way for a successful post-divorce future. If you are contemplating divorce, contact a NY divorce lawyer at our office for a consultation.
As a Buffalo divorce lawyer for 28 years, I have devoted myself to solving the problems that affect families throughout the Buffalo metropolitan area and Western New York. As a family law attorney, I make it my goal to create a partnership of trust with my clients. People put their trust in me to handle cases that can potentially have a long-lasting impact on not only their lives, but the lives of their family as well.
Alexandra M. Rockwood is a Senior Associate Attorney with the Law Offices of Randy S. Margulis & Associates and has been with the firm since early 2020. She primarily practices in the areas of matrimonial and family law, including divorce, child custody, and child support. Alexandra is a practicing matrimonial and family law attorney as…
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5.0/5.0Divorce is always an unpleasant event and my case was no exception, yet the guidance, professionalism and ethical strategy that Randy Margulis provided was essential in finding the best solutions for my children, my ex-wife and myself. As the proces...
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5.0/5.0
Divorce is always an unpleasant event and my case was no exception, yet the guidance, professionalism and ethical strategy that Randy Margulis provided was essential in finding the best solutions for my children, my ex-wife and myself. As the proces...
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5.0/5.0
Randy Margulis is knowledgable of Domestic Law, dedicated, responsive, personable, aggressive and effective. I came to him on a friend's recommendation as well as Randy's reputation, and during the initial consultation I liked his approach and track ...
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5.0/5.0
Found Mr. Margulis to be a very organized and professional individual to work with. He is well-respected by his peers and is spoken of highly, I believe this helped with my divorce and made things go smoothly. I would highly recommend his services ...
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5.0/5.0
Randy is very firm and effective in court while empathetic to his clients. I am a domestic violence victim, and Randy made me feel safe and protected. My financial award was more than I envisioned it to be when I started my divorce. I can't thank ...
