Missouri aims for 50/50 custody of children and raises concerns about victims of abuse

COLUMBIA, Missouri — Gov. Mike Parson could soon make Missouri one of the first states to adopt 50/50 split parental leave as the standard in child custody cases.

But the bill on his desk, passed in the final hour of the legislative session, did not include changes some family law attorneys and domestic violence advocates had been working on for months – and raised concerns it could make it harder for victims to escape abusive relationships prevent and protect their children.

“On one hand, taking a child away from a good parent can prevent some parents from being unreasonable,” said Adam Sommer, family law attorney in Warrensburg and host of the progressive podcast Heartland Pod.

“Also, it will — the flip side of the coin — give offenders easier and quicker access to children, which I think will be an unfortunate by-product of that.”

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Under current law, judges decide custody cases by balancing the best interests of the child and the idea that each parent should spend “substantial,” though not necessarily equal, time with the child. This contact should be “frequent, continuous and meaningful”.

The legislation changes this, requiring judges to begin each custody case with the assumption that “equal or approximately equal” parenting time for each parent is in the best interests of the child. A parent can rebut this presumption by presenting evidence that a 50/50 agreement is not in the best interests of the child, and the judge would then consider that evidence.

After years of opposing the change, family law advocates have been working with lawmakers on regulations updating the standards by which judges determine a child’s best interests in custody cases, including those related to domestic violence.

But while the changes made their way into a version of the bill, a malfunction in the Missouri Senate killed its chances. Less than an hour before the 2023 legislative session adjourned, the House of Representatives approved a version without the negotiated changes.

“What passed wasn’t what we were working on,” said Lara Underwood, an attorney and member of the Missouri Association of Family Law Attorneys.

The sponsor of the bill, Rep. Jim Murphy, R-St. Louis said the changes advocates are calling for are “minor”.

“The rest of the bill was so important that not stopping it wasn’t enough,” Murphy said.

Such equal parenting laws have been pushed in recent years by advocacy groups like the National Parents Organization (formerly called “Fathers and Families”), who argue that courts in custody battles often favor mothers and disadvantage fathers who want a bigger role in their custody battles and the upbringing of the child and his children.

The 50/50 laws are part of a broader movement in recent decades toward co-parenting laws.

“It is important for children to have both parents whenever possible, and that should always be the primary consideration of the court,” Murphy said in an interview with The Independent.

Joan Meier, founder and director of the National Family Violence Law Center at George Washington University, said the 50/50 legislation could put children at risk and was based on the false assumption that there is a bias against men in family courts.

“We are against these laws because they only worsen the situation for children,” said Meier. “Because even without this statute, the children are doing extremely badly.”

In a 2019 study of over 4,000 family court cases, Meier found that when mothers report child abuse or domestic violence in custody disputes, they often actually lose custody to the alleged abuser. She found that 28% of the time women reported abuse, they lost custody – potentially putting children at risk.

Meier told the judges, “The message is very clear that there are very few things that can overcome the very strong assumption that children need to be with both parents equally,” she said — even evidence of abuse, because the court “very strong” is implicit bias.”

A 50/50 shared parenting law is just a “more extreme version” of the broader shared parenting trends she examines, which in practice have been shown to “harm mothers and children.”

Meier said the assumption that men often lose in family courts is also not supported by data.

Most custody cases are decided not in court but through settlement agreements, she said, when in fact mothers often get primary custody. “But in the cases that end up in court — a tiny percentage of all families that break up — fathers are favored,” she said.

“Courts are already beginning to want to reward fathers who come to custody court,” Meier said. “They all want to encourage father participation.”

National Parents Organization Missouri chapter chair Linda Reutzel was unavailable for an interview.

Reutzel has previously testified that equal co-parenting “will reduce hostility between parents.” She wrote in 2021 that groups “tried to confuse issues of domestic violence with the creation of equal co-parenting,” but in fact “equality tends to reduce conflict.”

In an interview with the National Parents Organization last year, she said, “You need an adversarial system that pits one parent against the other and says you’re equal and you get equal time with your child, which is in the child’s best interest .” ”

Among the Witnesses who spoke out at the Missouri hearings were divorced fathers who said they wished they had more time with their children and parent rights groups.

bipartisan support

Kentucky, Arkansas and West Virginia have passed 50/50 parenting laws in the last five years. Florida’s legislature passed such a law this year.

Missouri’s bill passed by a vote of 114 to 9 in the House of Representatives and 30 to 4 in the Senate.

MP Sarah Unsicker, D-Shrewsbury, was one of the few MPs to oppose the 50/50 Parenting Act this year on the grounds that it would limit judges’ discretionary powers in deciding the best plan for children.

“The judge should listen to the arguments and make decisions based on evidence,” she said.

She was also concerned that the version that ended up on the governor’s desk didn’t reflect the behind-the-scenes work of attorneys and family law experts.

“If there have been months of negotiations to work on a bill that makes it better, even if it’s still bad, things could get worse,” Unsicker said. “And then it’s pretty disingenuous to push through the worst bill at the last minute and say it’s the same thing people were working on and not allow anyone to talk about it.”

With virtually all Senate legislative affairs deadlocked by intrapartisan Republican infighting in the final week of session, there was no hope of passing the bill with the negotiated language. With time running out, the House of Representatives had a choice of either passing an equal custody bill without the proposed changes, or dropping the entire bill and trying again next year.

“I had to twist a lot of arms just to get through that last day,” Murphy said. “My priority was to take on the putative co-parenting part.

“I’ve been working on that for years.”

Murphy said the bill is too important to wait another year.

Of the language negotiated, Murphy said, “It wasn’t a head-turner at all because the judge will always have the best interests of the child in his final word. Domestic violence is always a consideration.”

What was missing, proponents say, were updates to the best-interest standard for judges when evaluating cases.

In assessing the child’s best interests, judges consider several factors, including a “pattern of domestic violence.”

Current law limits custody for a history of domestic violence only if the court finds that “a visit would endanger the physical health of the child or affect their emotional development.” It defines domestic violence as “abuse or stalking” committed by a family or household member.

Proponents had hoped to expand this to allow judges to consider the nature and context of the domestic abuse, as well as the impact of the violence on the child’s safety and developmental needs. They also wanted the law to be clear that abuse could be “physical, verbal, emotional, or psychological.”

Even current law, which prioritizes joint custody rather than equal custody, can create difficulties and barriers for victims to leave an abusive partner, a recent Springfield Daily Citizen investigation found.

Underwood said many family judges have never practiced family law themselves and “domestic violence isn’t even on their radar.”

Lauren Hackney slipped into her toddler’s shoes and her husband Andrew carried her down the stairs, where he handed her his daughter and waved goodbye. “When you lose someone you love and really want, and it’s like she’s your world. Basically, you feel like you’re losing everything,” Andrew Hackney said after a weekly supervised visit with his child that lasted just a few hours. It was October 2021 when her 7-month-old daughter started refusing her bottle. Her pediatrician first reassured the Hackneys that babies can sometimes be fickle about feeding and offered her ideas that might help her regain her appetite, they said. When she became lethargic days later, the same doctor told them to take her to the emergency room, where the Hackneys believe medical staff alerted child protection services after they showed up with a dehydrated and malnourished baby. At this point, they believe their information was fed into the Allegheny Family Screening Tool, which county officials say is the standard procedure for allegations of neglect. A social worker soon appeared to question her, and her daughter was sent to foster care at eight months old.

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