Maryland Child Custody Lawyer

Most of the time, parents reach an agreement with each other about how child custody will work for their family. If you and your co-parent are able to reach an agreement on your own or through negotiation or mediation with professional help, the court will approve your agreement so long as it appears to be in your child’s best interest. If you can’t agree, the court will dictate your child custody arrangement.

As a child custody lawyer, I have been helping Maryland families navigate child custody decisions for over 20 years. However, I consider myself a life changes attorney, as the focus of my work is helping individuals and families through life transitions. A child custody dispute is one of the most challenging transitions that any parent faces, but you don’t have to face it alone. Contact me to discuss how I can help you and your family.

Child Custody in Maryland

Parents who are divorcing or who don’t live together have to figure out how they will share time with, and responsibility for, their minor children. The legal term for this is child custody.

When we talk about child custody in Maryland, we are really talking about two things:

• Physical or residential custody (the amount of time the child spends with each parent)
• Legal custody (which parent has the right to make important decisions for the child, such as those involving health, education, and religion)

It’s common for parents to have both joint physical and legal custody, which means they need to figure out a schedule that works for everyone, and learn to co-parent together. That can be challenging, especially if you and your co-parent are on bad terms or disagree about what’s best for your children. An experienced child custody lawyer can make the process easier on you—and usually, that makes it easier on your children, too.

Best Interest of the Child

In Maryland, like other states, custody is decided based on the “best interest of the child.” The court considers a variety of factors, like the age, sex, and health of the child, the fitness of the parents, and the child’s relationship with each parent.

In general, it is better for you and your co-parent to work out your own custody arrangement if you can. After all, a judge doesn’t know your family and its unique needs as well as you do. If you do need to go to court for a custody decision, it’s important to have a child custody lawyer who is comfortable litigating, so that they can make the strongest possible argument for your position to the judge.

Enforcement of Child Custody

Unfortunately, some parents don’t abide by the terms of their custody order. If your co-parent is consistently violating the order, such as by interfering with your parenting time or refusing to exercise their scheduled time, they may be in contempt of the child custody order and you may need to seek enforcement. If you can show that your co-parent is violating the order, the court may impose consequences on them, including potentially modifying the order for custody and parenting time.

Modification of Custody Order

Maryland courts can and do modify custody orders after the fact, but there has to be a compelling reason for the change. In a nutshell, there must have been a “material change in circumstances” since the last custody order. Some situations that Maryland courts have considered a material change in circumstances include the custodial parent’s plans to move out of state or preventing the other parent from seeing the children.

If a court finds that there has been a material change of circumstances in your case, it will then decide whether the proposed modification is in your child’s best interest. The best interest of the child is the primary consideration in all custody determinations.

Child Support and Child Custody

Parents have a duty to support their children based on their financial ability to do so. In Maryland, child support between parents who don’t share a household is determined by guidelines. The guidelines consider parental income, certain child-related expenses, and the number of overnights the child spends in each home when there is joint physical custody.

When parents’ incomes fall within the Maryland child support guidelines, the amount of child support determined by the guidelines is presumed to be correct. If the parents’ combined incomes exceed the guideline formula limits, the court has discretion to determine an appropriate amount of child support.

In most cases, child support continues until a child turns 18 if they have graduated from high school; support may continue up to age 19 for a child who has not yet graduated. Like child custody, child support may be modified if circumstances warrant.

Work with an Experienced Maryland Child Custody Lawyer

I have been working with Maryland parents for over 20 years to help them reach agreement regarding child custody, or if necessary, to pursue custody at trial.