Establishing and Changing Child Custody and Parental Visitation in Albuquerque, New Mexico

 

Interested in establishing and changing child custody and parental visitation in Albuquerque, New Mexico ?

In some instances a parent grows and desires to have a deeper and more meaningful relationship with their child. Maybe the parent has overcome incarceration, substance abuse, mental health problems, or any other combination of issues that previously held them back from reaching their full potential.

 

HOW TO GET MORE PARENTAL VISITATION TIME WITH YOUR CHILD IN ALBUQUERQUE

 

Commonly there are two paths that a parent must take to establish more time with their child.

The first path involves situations where the parents have never involved the court with their parenting arrangement and the father may or may not have acknowledged parentage, legally or otherwise. This situation creates a considerable amount of uncertainty. At any time if one parent withholds the child, for any reason, the police will tell both parties that the matter is outside of their control. The police take a hand’s off approach because the dispute is considered a “domestic matter” without a clear court order – requiring the parents to bring the matter before a domestic relations judge. Unfortunately, the process of getting a clear court order can often take several weeks, and up to several months.

The process of receiving a court ordered time-sharing arrangement begins when one parent files a Petition to Establish Paternity, Child Custody, parents Time-sharing and Child Support. The court will set a hearing date, requiring both parties to come before the court. On the date of the hearing, the court begins by determining whether the father is accepting parentage. The court will order a DNA test to be performed, in situations where the father is denying parentage. Once parentage has been established, the court will set temporary timesharing and child support. The temporary time-sharing generally follows the court’s suggested guidelines, which can be found by clicking here: Suggested Visitation Guidelines. Additionally, an explanation of how child support is calculated can be found by clicking here: Calculating Child Support in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

All parents must go through these steps to get the court involved with child custody, parents timesharing and child support. But no meaningful change comes effortlessly, and absent parents should expect to encounter a series of steps, hurdles and jumps to reach their final goal of having more time with their child. Parents that have never established a relationship with a child, or have had prolonged absences from the child’s life, should expect the court to begin with a reintegration plan, where the child slowly transitions into the absent parent’s life. This process generally begins with small periods of supervised visits, through an agency such as APN or Neutral Corner. Over time and as the relationship grows, the court grants the parent more time with the child, beginning with unsupervised visits and working up to overnight visits and then multiple days of parental visitation.

In situations where a court case has already been established and a custody and time-sharing plan is in effect, a parent can always file a Motion to Modify Custody and Time-sharing, if there has been “a significant and material change in circumstances that warrants a modification of child custody, and time-sharing in accordance with NMSA 1978, § 40-4-9.1.” Essentially this means that there has been a major change in the child’s life, and the present time-sharing arrangement is no longer workable, or is no longer in the child’s best interests.

This substantial and material change in circumstance could be a parent being released from incarceration, taking necessary parenting or counseling classes, relocating from another state or city to be closer to the child, or any other factor that significantly changes the dynamic of the parent-child relationship.

But the yin also comes with a yang. On the darker side of the spectrum a parent can always request the court to change the present custody and time-sharing arrangement if the other parent is engaging in erratic or unstable behavior that threatens the safety, welfare, or best interests of the child – requiring the court to modify the present time-sharing arrangement accordingly.