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Waukegan

2835 Belvidere Road
Suite 202
Waukegan, IL 60085

(847) 520-8100

Appointments available Friday:
9:00 AM - 1:00 PM
Saturday 8:00 AM - 11:30 AM
Please call for scheduling

Custody Schedule

Jesse Barrientes: Let's talk about it so they know the different types of kind of custody. You mentioned residential custody, or when you have physical possession. There's sole custody which means that the non-custodial parent, the person who doesn't have the child, or physical possession of the child most of the time does not have a say so in the upbringing and the day-to-day decisions, in the decisions as it relates to medical treatment, except for, of course, emergency.

David Siegel: But they still have heavy involvement. They have heavy involvement, extensive visitation, extended periods of time possibly in the summer and the winter breaks.

Jesse Barrientes: They do, but again, when you say custody, people can't wrap their mind around it. They think the other person's getting it and I'm going to be cut out. The other type of custody is joint custody where the other parent, the non-custodial parent, does have a say so in the education, and the religion, and the medical treatment of that child, or children, and they get to be able to have visitation. Whether or not someone has sole custody or joint custody, unless you're a monster, unless there are some other very good reasons, you're not going to get, or you are going to get visitation. That's not going to be an issue. It's not going to be a problem. There's one kind of hybrid which is one exception to the rule.

David Siegel: And what is that?

Jesse Barrientes: That would be joint residential custody. That would be a situation where both parents would share parenting time, pretty much kind of equally, but again, I say it's the exception. Understand, this is not something that you do because it's convenient for the parents. That's what they try to do all the time. Everything is determined or dictated by the best interests of the child or the children.

David Siegel: Right.

Jesse Barrientes: If it's a situation where it works, a lot of times people, even though they might get divorced, or they're going through a Waukegan divorce, they'll still stay in the same home. In a situation like that, that might be appropriate. They may continue to stay in the home after the divorce for a certain number of times before they put the house up, especially now because the market is so horrible, or somebody might live very close and they're in the same school district, and that's the schedule they've maintained so far. It naturally flows.

David Siegel: Right. The court needs some serious convincing, though, to allow that kind of arrangement. You are still shuffling the child back and forth from one household to another, even if they're in the same school district, even if they're in close proximity. It's not like sharing a pet where you're going to care for the pet four days, I'm going to have him three. It's much more involved than that with the schooling, and extra curricular, and all that.

Jesse Barrientes: That's absolutely correct. That's why it's the exception to the rule. It doesn't work all the time. I'm stressing that everything is the best interest of the children, not the convenience of the parent. A lot of times that's what they try to do to make things more convenient for them, and they're losing sight of what it is, but as it relates to that and visitation, obviously getting to see your child, or having parenting time for a specific time. A kind of general type of parenting time schedule or visitation schedule would be every other weekend, alternating holidays, meaning that one day the husband, or one holiday, one Christmas, the husband would get Christmas. The following Christmas the wife would get it, and they kind of break it up and alternate.

Mediation

When mediation is best

Mediating child issues

Cost of mediation

Success of mediation

Benefits of mediation

Proceeding past mediation

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