Child Custody, Visitation Issues Considered

The House Judiciary Committee waded through a series of bills Wednesday that are designed to ease or eliminate disputes between divorcing parents on such issues as child custody and visitation.

Legislators have heard numerous tales from disgruntled and discouraged parents in recent years about those issues, and agreeing on solutions proved elusive Wednesday, too.

Family Law

Child custody cases take place in our court system every day. But lately, the process has become a bit more difficult. The problem stems from a new law passed earlier this year. It dictates what the state will pay lawyers who accept these cases, sometimes unwillingly. Now a local judge is speaking out against the new program.

The state legislature changed system for compensating attorneys that represent parents at a child custody hearing this summer. The pay in a case works out to $13.13 an hour. Lawmakers significantly reduced the amount of compensation was and created the Office of Regional Council to help cover the cases.

Custody rules 'exposing children to war zones' - National - theage.com.au

In a finding that challenges the Howard government's changes to child custody laws, new research has found that children aged under 10 can be emotionally harmed by shared-parenting arrangements in many families.

Where parents cannot co-operate and remain hostile towards each other, shared-parenting arrangements can result in a higher-than-normal rate of clinical anxiety in the children, the research found.