Posted on June 7, 2009 by John Steele
This past week I win in court in a case where the other party had filed a Petition to Modify Custody. Essentially the other party (the mother) wanted to take custody of the two children from my client (the father). In Illinois, a parent cannot ask to modify custody in less then 24 months after the entry of the current permanent child custody order unless the petitioning party is claiming that the child is at risk of physical harm. That last clause has A LOT higher burden then non lawyers think. It is hard. So basically, don’t bother trying to take custody of the kids less then 2 years after a custody order is put into place unless you can show some serious physical risk or danger to the minor child(ren).
A side note, there is a difference between temporary and permanent custody orders. If a temporary order is in place, the non-custodical parent can ask for a permanent change of custody in their favor. Of course, courts are not excited about ripping children out of their current living situation just because the other parent may be a bit better. Which brings me to my last point: Fight for what you want in the beginning. Its much harder to go back and try to ‘fix’ an order that you cannot live with. Posted on June 7, 2009 by John Steele
This past week I win in court in a case where the other party had filed a Petition to Modify Custody. Essentially the other party (the mother) wanted to take custody of the two children from my client (the father). In Illinois, a parent cannot ask to modify custody in less then 24 months after the entry of the current permanent child custody order unless the petitioning party is claiming that the child is at risk of physical harm. That last clause has A LOT higher burden then non lawyers think. It is hard. So basically, don’t bother trying to take custody of the kids less then 2 years after a custody order is put into place unless you can show some serious physical risk or danger to the minor child(ren).
A side note, there is a difference between temporary and permanent custody orders. If a temporary order is in place, the non-custodical parent can ask for a permanent change of custody in their favor. Of course, courts are not excited about ripping children out of their current living situation just because the other parent may be a bit better. Which brings me to my last point: Fight for what you want in the beginning. Its much harder to go back and try to ‘fix’ an order that you cannot live with.
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