Effective January 1, 2016, changes to Illinois family law will effect the Illinois Marriage and Dissociation of Marriage Act (IMDMA) with regard to future child custody determinations.
Prior to the new law going into effect the first of the year, the current law applies to child custody pursuant to divorce. As the law stands now, an award of legal custody allows a parent to make important decisions on behalf of the child and physical custody dictates where a child will reside. Child custody can be allocated as joint or sole custody, with or without visitation in accordance with what serves the child’s best interests.
Under the new law, the court will make determinations based on “parental responsibility” rather than rigid child custody arrangements, thus minimizing a long-held perception of losers and winners among parents. Terms such as legal and physical custody will be obsolete.
Instead of awarding “legal custody” to grant decision making authority, parental responsibility looks at particular decisions and who will act in the best interests of the child. “Decision-making responsibilities” allows parents to make decisions for a child in education, religion, health and extracurricular activities – four main areas that tend to shape a child’s life. In consideration of the best interests of the child, the court can assign these responsibilities to both parents, divide the duties, or determine that only one parent is entitled to make decisions in all four areas.
Instead of “physical custody”, the preferred term “parental time” will be used. The concept of “parenting time” replacing the former term of “physical custody and visitation” softens the semantics when talking about who gets to spend time with the kids. Regardless of the terms used, the courts will still allocate this “time” considering what is in the child’s best interests by looking at factors such as where and with whom the child has spent time in the recent past; the relationship the child has with parents, siblings or other people of influence; the distance between the parental homes; the ability of the parents to cooperate and whether any restrictions should apply to serve the child.
If you have questions regarding what impact the new law may have on your existing child custody arrangements or if you are contemplating divorce and would like more information on child custody, support, spousal maintenance or property division, contact the Law Offices of Ronald L. Bell for help today.