State law codifying equal parenting time in custody cases

Parents fighting custody cases in Missouri will initially get equal parenting time under a bill awaiting the governor’s signature.

The state General Assembly last month passed a bill that would establish “equal or nearly equal parenting periods” as the starting point in custody cases. Attorneys and local attorneys say they are model laws for states across the country that could set clear expectations for often stressful proceedings.

The 50/50 standard is established by a rebuttable presumption created in Senate Bill 35 and promoted by Democratic St. Louis Sen. Karla May. The standard can be challenged if the court finds the parents already have a custody agreement or finds a pattern of domestic violence, the bill says.

Equal parenting time can also be questioned when in custody cases the overwhelming majority of evidence relates to relevant factors, such as: B. the child’s contribution, relationships and interactions between the child and their parents or siblings, mental and physical health, or plans to relocate the child.

State legislators entered the legislation into several bills during the session, adding it to supplement May’s bill, which focused on establishing a hearing process to determine whether parents who do not pay child support have a business, Professional, professional, recreational or other license should be suspended. It passed by a vote of 30 to 4 in the Senate and 114 to 9 in the House of Representatives, with 29 voting members present.

There was no public opposition to the bill.

Advocacy groups including Americans for Equal Shared Parenting, National Parents Organization and The Fathers’ Rights Movement have been pushing for the law for eight years, saying it would be “the first major change in Missouri custody law since 1988” if it were passed would be signed.

“Attorneys now have the tools to help Missouri children achieve their best outcomes,” said Jeffrey Millar, a St. Charles-based attorney and lobbyist who has affiliated with Americans for Equal Shared Parenting. “The bottom line is that today, when the controversial winner-take-all approach to custody is abolished, and mechanisms that force children to choose one legally able and willing parent over the other are abolished, the children win.”

In a press release, Millar’s law firm described the legislation as a model for states across the country. Americans for Equal Shared Parenting is using it to help draft laws in Arkansas, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, New York, Illinois, New Jersey, Georgia, Michigan, Oklahoma and South Dakota, the release said.

In addition to establishing a standard basis of 50/50 parental leave, SB 35 urges courts to introduce a temporary parental plan into custody cases “as early as possible”. According to the bill, the court should “determine the custody arrangement that best ensures that both parents participate in such decisions and have frequent, ongoing, and meaningful contact with their children so long as it is in the best interests of the child.”

Parson has until July 14 to sign the law into law. If signed, SB 35 would come into effect on August 28.

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