We help parents maintain relationships with their children.
Child custody & visitation issues often become one of the most emotional parts of divorces. At Ballinger Law Firm, we strive to take a calm and balanced approach to child custody, using mediation, negotiation, and even litigation to help our clients in the Mount Pleasant, South Carolina area. Our ultimate goal is to create child custody agreements and visitation schedules that provide children and their parents with a sense of peace and security.
In South Carolina, there are two types of child custody:
- Physical Custody—This refers to the amount of time children spend with each parent.
- Legal Custody—This refers to the decision-making power the parents have over issues like education, extracurricular activities, religion, medical care, and the children’s general upbringing.
During your child custody & visitation case, you will likely create a plan that combines both legal and physical custody. For example, in many cases, parents will share joint legal custody, even though one parent has primary physical custody of the children. The visitation schedule can be as specific as you want and include information such as how your children will transfer from one parent to the other and how they will spend their holidays and weekends.
The court will determine custody based on the children’s best interests. While both parents typically want what is best for their children, what this looks like can differ for each parent. When making decisions, the court will consider a variety of factors to determine the best situation for the children. Some of these may include the fitness of both parents, who is the children’s primary caretaker, the education levels and skills of both parents, the children’s preferences, and others.
Contact our law firm today to learn more about child custody & visitation as it relates to your case.