Family Law
Can I have custody of my children? Can I request that the other parent have supervised visitation? How much is child support in Nevada? Do grandparents and other relatives have a right to have visitation with my minor children? How do guardianships work?
So many questions. People say that one of the most stressful areas of law is family law. After all, child custody and visitation battles, guardianships, and child support calculations involve not only your legal rights, but strong emotions are often involved. Where there once was a loving family, a broken family has emerged.
However, with the right attorney, it does not have to be as stressful as some people would claim. One of the goals of our law office is to help people through the legal system and relieve some of the stress that goes along with family law cases. By understanding what our client’s hopes and desires are, our office works to formulate a plan of action to try and meet that goal.
Child Custody
Parents can work together to formulate a child custody agreement. This agreement can be submitted to the Family Court Judge so the judge can issue an order. There are numerous advantages of a mutual agreement. It can be a lot quicker. It can be a lot less expensive. You decide what is the best interest of your own children, rather than the judge who is a stranger to your family. And most of all, there is less animosity between the parents, so this should make pick ups and drop offs less stressful for not only the parents, but the children as well.
If the parents cannot come to an agreement, then litigation is the next path. The appropriate pleading is filed, and the parties can still try to come to an agreement throughout the process. Contested cases can be more stressful on the parties, but if one party is being unreasonable, then you may need to present your case to the Family Court Judge for decision.
What about when a grandparent or a person who has established a meaningful relationship with a child, do they have any visitation rights? What if the parent of the child is denying or unreasonably restricting visits with the child? There is hope.
Under NRS 125C.050, Nevada law provides that if a parent of an unmarried minor child is (1) deceased, (2) divorced or separated from the parent who has custody of the child, (3) has never been legally married to the other parent of the child, but cohabitated with the other parent and is deceased or is separated from the other parent, or (3) has relinquished his or her parental rights or his or her parental rights have been terminated, then the family court judge may grant to the great-grandparents and grandparents of the child and to other children of either parent of the child a reasonable right to visit the child during the child's minority.
In addition, if the child has resided with a person with whom the child has established a meaningful relationship, the family court judge may grant to that person a reasonable right to visit the child during the child's minority, regardless of whether the person is related to the child.