If you find yourself in a custody battle, where you’re the non-custodial parent, you probably have a lot of questions, such as, how did I become the non-custodial parent? What are the rights of a custodial parent vs. non-custodial parent? What happens if the non-custodial parent misses visitation?

In this video, Sina Mohajer discusses how you can overcome, modify, or change your child custody order. What are your rights and responsibilities or legal rights as a non-custodial parent? And how the court determined that the other parent gets to have primary custody.

If you have any questions or would like to speak with a skilled attorney about family law, contact Mohajer Law Firm today at (626) 569-5200.

Transcript:
If you find yourself in a custody battle where you’re the non-custodial parent, you probably have a lot of questions as to how I became the non-custodial parent. How can I overcome it or change that order? What are my rights and responsibilities or legal rights that I have as a non-custodial parent? And how the court determined that the other parent gets to have primary custody.

And in this video we’re going to address all of those. Hi, I’m Sina Mohajer. I’m a family law attorney practicing in the Greater Los Angeles County since 2012. I’ve been a contributing member of the Los Angeles County Bar Association and I’ve been rated by Super Lawyers since 2019.

What Is A Non-Custodial Parent?

What does it mean to be a non-custodial parent? Plainly put, it just means that more than 50 of your child’s time is being spent with the other parent. And that’s it.

There’s no negativity on that. But certainly, I’m sure you want more time with your kids as any other good parent does, too.

Why Did I Become the Non-Custodial Parent?

But the question is, how you got here. In this video specifically, we’re going to address a scenario where I’ve had many clients come to me and saying the court just found that either, a) I was not a fit parent, or b) the other parent was just more capable of taking care of the kids.

And that could be on a number of reasons. It could be alcohol issues, drug issues. It could be that on your time, on your last visitation, the children were put in harm’s way or at risk of in harm’s way where the court found that it’s best to limit your time to maybe alternating weekends or maybe no overnights.

How to Change a Child Custody Order

Now, how to overcome that? It’s very important and it depends on your circumstance. If the court found alcohol was an issue, then going to an alcohol program and showing that growth and improvement goes a long way.

If you were not co-parenting effectively, or creating more problems in front of the children, well, then taking co-parenting classes might be the easy fix to show the court that you have grown and improved yourself in order to increase your custodial time with those kids.

Now, your legal rights and responsibilities, really, you always want to look at the court order. The court order sets forth the rules and regulations that you and the other co-parent must follow. There’s no ifs, ands, or buts, and chances are, you probably have joint legal custody.

If you don’t, you definitely want to talk to a seasoned family law attorney to find out exactly what your rights are. But with joint legal custody means that neither parent can make any unilateral decisions without the consent, written consent, from the other parent or a court order.

Help With Your Family Law and Child Custody Case

If you have questions about your case more specifically or you’d like to discuss strategy on how to overcome where you’ve already been to get that more time with your kids, feel free to give our office a call. We would be happy to offer you an initial consultation to discuss your options and to figure out the best process to take from there.