Augusta GA Family Law Blog

Child custody and child support can be two of the most stressful factors in the outcome of a divorce. Living up to child support commitments can place additional strain on an already stressful situation. The courts in Georgia are trying to alleviate some of that stress through the creation of what they call Parental Accountability Court.

Under this new program, a court employee works with parents who may be behind on their child support payments rather than jailing them for failure to pay. This help can consist of helping with job searches and ensuring that amounts owed in child support are paid. The assistance can last from 12 to 18 months and is intended to attempt to reduce the number of parents serving jail time for failure to pay child support commitments.

The rates at which couples dissolve their marriages in the United States have been on the decline in recent years. However, there is one age group for whom this does not hold true. For those over 50, the divorce rate has doubled since the 1990s. Though it clearly impacts both men and women in Georgia, one area affecting women more than men, particularly women over 50, is the area of finances.

While gender roles are changing in all areas of their lives, there is still a tendency on the part of women to allow men to handle long-term investment decisions. In many instances, women leave this task entirely to their partners, and they are usually not fully aware of the couple's financial situation. If such a couple decides to divorce, it can benefit both parties to be familiar with all aspects of their finances.

When a child loses his or her parents the resulting trauma can be devastating to everyone involved. If the deceased couple were married and the parents of the surviving children, child custody of the children will often go to a surviving family member who is able to care for them. But what if the parents were not married and there is another parent in the picture from a previous relationship? Such is the child custody case of a gentleman in Columbus, Georgia.

The couple were in a previous relationship and had a son. The father of the boy has custody. His ex-girlfriend and her current partner died tragically, and she left behind a baby boy. The gentleman from Columbus is suing for custody of the baby in order to keep the two brothers together. He is supported in his suit by the woman's sister who feels the boys should be kept together, and she recently launched a petition on Facebook in a bid to curry favor with the court.

Once upon a time, if parents divorced, parents would live in separate places and the children would go back and forth between the two homes according to a pre-arranged schedule. This could cause many stressors in the new family dynamic in Georgia. The stressors could include one parent, usually the mother, getting more time with the children, one parent having more influence on the children, and the children being caught in the middle. Child custody in 2018 can look very different.

While two separate homes may still exist, there are many variations of child custody. Parents may remain living in the home but in separate spaces. They may take turns staying in the house so the children are always in one place while the parents go back and forth. Whatever the arrangement, the welfare of the children is often being considered first.