Fathers’ Rights Divorce Attorney Chicago

Fathers’ Rights Divorce Attorney Chicago

If you’re a father who is facing a divorce, you naturally have serious concerns regarding your ongoing relationship with your children. Many fathers are convinced that their children’s mother is likely to be granted the benefit of the doubt and to get the lion’s share of parenting time in divorce. While it’s easy to let your imagination run away with you when you’re facing an issue as important as child custody (which is now known in Illinois as Parental Responsibilities that allocate parenting time and decision-making authority to each parent), it’s important to remember that you have legal rights that a fathers’ rights divorce attorney in Chicago can help defend.

The Best Interests of Your Children

The most important thing for you to know about the court’s decisions regarding your children is that each and every one of them is predicated on what the court deems to be in their best interests. There is no legal presumption that the mother is a better option when it comes to child custody concerns. In fact, the presumption is that children fare better when they have an ongoing relationship with both parents (barring a compelling and credible reason to believe otherwise), and the court’s decisions in regards to parenting time (previously known as custody) tend to reflect this belief. 

This is not to say that you shouldn’t vigorously defend your parental rights as a father – you should – but you shouldn’t feel dejected right out of the gate. An experienced fathers’ rights divorce attorney can help ensure that your parental rights are well protected and that your relationship with your children will continue to flourish.

The Allocation of Parental Responsibility

The allocation of parental responsibility has two parts: parenting time and decision-making. 

Decision-Making

Decision-making refers to who will be making the important decisions on behalf of your children moving forward, including decisions about their:

• Education
• Extracurriculars
• Religious upbringing
• Health care

Making these decisions is obviously a big part of being a parent, and aggressively advocating for the ability to continue participating in your children’s lives in this capacity is worth the effort. If your soon-to-be-ex refuses to budge on the matter, you can turn to the court to make its own determination. One factor that the court will likely consider is who made which decisions for your children prior to divorce, and it can divide the decision-making responsibilities accordingly.

Parenting Time

You and your spouse are divorcing – not you and your children. You naturally want to continue fostering a strong bond with your children, and that is what parenting time is all about. If your divorcing spouse is not interested in negotiating in good faith for a parenting time schedule that supports your rights and allows you to spend a considerable amount of time with your children, you can look to the court to intervene. The court tends to base such decisions on factors such as how much time each parent has spent with the children in the previous two years. If you can demonstrate your constancy in their lives and your active participation in their care, you may well convince the court that it is in your children’s best interests to spend more time with you.

Turn to an Experienced Fathers’ Rights Divorce Attorney in Chicago

If you are facing a fathers’ rights concern, the formidable fathers’ rights divorce attorneys at WARD FAMILY LAW LLC in Chicago are well-positioned to help. For more information, please don’t hesitate to contact us today.