Parental Allocation Attorneys Chicago

Parental Allocation Attorneys Chicago

The allocation of your parental rights is important to you as a parent – whether you are facing a divorce, require a post-decree modification, or are facing child custody concerns outside the realm of marriage and divorce. When your kids are involved, it matters, and an experienced parental allocation attorney in Chicago can help. 

The Decisions of Parenthood

The State of Illinois no longer uses the term child custody and instead addresses the matters of allocating parental responsibilities which includes both decision-making and parenting time. Parental responsibilities (one aspect) refers to the big decisions that parents are responsible for making on behalf of their children, including those related to:

• Their schooling
• The extracurriculars
• Their religious upbringing
• Their healthcare needs

You and your children’s other parent can allocate this decision-making power between yourselves however you see fit, and you have the following options to choose from:

• You can hammer out these decisions together as a team. 
• You can hammer out these decisions together as a team (while one of you retains tie-breaking authority for those occasions when you can’t come to a mutually agreeable decision).
• One of you can take on this decision-making responsibility on your own. 
• You can divide this decision-making authority between you according to the kind of decision that is being made. For example, one of you might take on education and healthcare decisions while the other tackles decisions about extracurriculars and religious upbringing (according to whatever makes sense for you).  

Parenting Time

The other aspect of parental responsibilities is parenting time.  Parenting time refers to the parenting schedule that guides how you and your children’s other parent split your time with your children. The court takes a long list of factors into consideration when making this decision, but the parenting time schedules it hands out are generally standardized (and not individualized for a specific parent’s needs). When it comes to your own parenting time determinations, you are allowed the flexibility to create whatever kind of schedule works for you, but all such schedules fall into one of two basic categories that include:

• One of you becomes the parent with whom your children spend the majority of their overnights, while the other parent has what amounts to a parenting schedule.
• You and your children’s other parent each have parenting time schedules that allow you approximately the same number of overnights with your shared children. 

The Court

When it comes to the allocation of parental rights, it is important to take the court’s position into consideration. The court makes every child-related decision in accordance with the child’s best interests. And all things being equal, the court’s position is that children are best served when they are allowed to spend a considerable amount of time with both parents. 

Consult with an Experienced Parental Allocation Attorney in Chicago Today

The accomplished parental allocation attorneys at WARD FAMILY LAW in Chicago take your parental rights as seriously as you do, and we have the experience, drive, and legal skill to help you protect these important rights. For more information, please don’t wait to contact us today.