Child Custody
There are two types of child custody in Massachusetts: Physical Custody and Legal Custody. Parents may have joint or sole custody arrangements.
- Legal Custody of the children gives the parents the right and responsibility to make major decisions regarding the child’s welfare including matters of education, medical care, and emotional, moral, and religious development.
- Sole physical custody is when the child is under the supervision of one parent for a majority of the time, subject to reasonable visitation by the other parent. Oftentimes parents will have a joint physical custody arrangement whereby the child spends equal time with each parent.
The appropriate custody arrangement for your family is dependent on a variety of factors. Even if you and your spouse disagree on the custody plan, Attorney Pennock has extensive experience working with such conflicts and can provide sound and reasonable advice to handle such situations and give you the guidance you need.
Child Support
Parents in Massachusetts are obligated to financially support their minor children, whether divorced or separated, or in cases where the parents have never been married. Attorney Pennock uses her in depth knowledge of Massachusetts state child support guidelines and years of family law experience to help clients obtain fair financial support orders. These guidelines take into consideration the parents’ incomes, the number of children involved, costs of child care and/or health insurance as well as other expenses. Working with an experienced family law attorney is essential to ensure the child support calculation made is appropriate for your circumstances.
Modification and/or Enforcement of a Child Support Order
There are often circumstances whereby one of the parents has a change in income, there has been a change in parenting time and/or the children’s’ expenses have changed which can be grounds to modify the child support order in place. There are also times where one parent does not pay the child support and/or child related expenses ordered and enforcement of the order is necessary. Attorney Pennock has experience dealing with these matters and can provide with the legal assistance you need.