Establishing the Right to Child Custody

Illinois statutes no longer use the term child custody but it is a commonly understood phrase.  Instead of awarding custody, courts now delineate decision making responsibility in regards to such issues as education, primary residence, health care, extracurricular activities and religion.  Most of the time, these issues are resolved as part of divorce proceedings.  However, in many cases, the parents of the child have never been married so custody related issues are determined as part of a parentage case.  In some cases, people other than a parent might seek some form of custody of a child.  There are no black and white rules for determining which person or parent should have primary residential responsibility or decision making authority for a minor child.  Each case is unique which is why you need an experienced family law attorney to assist you in custody related matters.  Feel free to contact us to see if we can assist you.