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If a person has a child approaching kindergarten in the Fall of 2020, or a child in 8th grade and ready to begin High School, choice of school issues should now be front and center.

We, at the Schwartz Law Firm, believe, and advise our clients, that the Fall season, of the year before the beginning of the following school year, is the appropriate time to determine if parents are in agreement regarding school choice. If not, a Petition for Custody (if parties have no custody order) or a Petition to Modify an existing order, should be filed right away.

Scenario: A Parent has no Custody Order. The Other Parent has no contact with the child and no interest in having Custody time with the child. The Parent-in-Custody has no real “need” to get have a Custody Order. On the other hand, the Parent-in-Custody simply “wants” to get a Custody Order, as a perceived item of “safety” or to be able to tell the world that “I have sole custody of my child”. Are these “good enough” reasons? What may happen if the Parent-in-Custody does file for Custody?

In January 2011, the new Custody Act became effective in Pennsylvania. In the new Custody Act, there are 16 “factors”, which the Court must consider and analyze, in deciding a Custody matter. Since the enactment of the new Custody Act, prior judicial decisions and holdings have been laid to waste by the enactment of

Much of legal custody writing discusses issues and concerns surrounding Physical Custody. This flavor of custody, Physical, concerns the number of overnights a child spends with each parent. If a child spends more overnights in a month with one parent, that parent has Primary Physical Custody and the other parent has Partial Physical Custody.

In high income child support cases (high income is defined by law as cases in which the net incomes of the parties combined exceeds $30,000.00 per month), in order to avoid unduly large support results, the Trial Court must consider the “reasonable needs” of the child or children. This ruling resulted in the case Hanrahan

***CUSTODY LAW UPDATE*** Effective July 4, 2018, there has been a major change in the Child Custody Law in Pennsylvania. Before that date, it was difficult for people who were not parents, step-parents or grandparents to obtain custody rights. That will all change. Effective that date, ANY individual who can establish that they: Have assumed;