Even when one parent is awarded sole physical custody of a child and is deemed the custodial parent, the non-custodial parent is normally awarded parenting time with the child in a manner the Court believes to be in the best interest of the child. The Indiana Parenting Time Guidelines provide parenting time schedules based on the child’s age, beginning at the child’s birth. The parenting time ...Read More ...
Family Law
Child Support Guideline Amendments
The Child Support Guidelines provide guidance to the Court, practitioners, and parents on the calculation of child support obligations. It is important that any non-married parent with a minor child is familiar with the Child Support Guidelines. The Guidelines are reviewed and updated on a regular basis, with the most recent amendment becoming effective January 1, 2020. The amended guidelines ...Read More ...
Second Parent Adoption
Traditionally, the adoption of a child severs the parental rights for both biological parents. Indiana law provides for second parent adoptions, which allows one of the biological parents to retain their parental rights after the adoption is finalized. This is most commonly seen when the biological parent’s spouse, the child’s stepparent, adopts their stepchild. Both the biological parent and the ...Read More ...
Paternity Affidavit
When a child is born to parents who are not married to each other, the father is not legally recognized as the child’s father until paternity is established. One way to establish paternity is for the unmarried parents to execute a paternity affidavit. Executing a paternity affidavit has significant legal implications, so it is important that both parents understand the legal implications of ...Read More ...
Limitation of Parenting Time
The preamble to the Indiana Parenting Time Guidelines states that the Guidelines “. . .are based on the premise that it is usually in a child's best interest to have frequent, meaningful and continuing contact with each parent. It is assumed that both parents nurture their child in important ways, significant to the development and wellbeing of the child.” In custody cases, a Court is tasked with ...Read More ...
Emancipation
Indiana Code 31-16-6-6, which sets out when the duty to support a child ceases and under what circumstances child support may cease at an earlier date, has been amended to provide an extension for the age of emancipation. The obligation to pay child support normally ceases when a child turns nineteen. This would cause an issue when a child was still attending high school at the age of nineteen; ...Read More ...