While the Minnesota Legislature is in session there are often bills that people involved in the court process may care about.Currently they are considering a proposal to presume joint physical custody and that the presumption be an equal time with each parent. The bill is known as Minnesota House File 69. You can follow the links below to find the contact information for your legislator and express your opinion about it. This link shows it as introduced. As it is amended if it is amended there will be new versions posted on the Minnesota State House's web site.
The bar association is generally opposed to this as a presumption as it does not appear to be what is best for most children in most families. Although it may be appropriate for some, those where it is appropriate can either agree to it now under current law or persuade a judge that it is best for their family (with the focus being on the best interests of the child as discussed elsewhere in our web site) and the Judge can then order it. Last session there was legislation to study the issue. Below is the link to the results of that blue ribbon panel study:
BILL REQUIRING ALL PARENTS IN CUSTODY PROCEEDINGS TO ADOPT A PARENTING PLAN:
There is currently a bill proposing that all parents adopt a parenting plan that defines the parenting time and not rely upon the labels of Custody and Parenting Access Time anymore. Although I often recommend parenting plans for parents deciding these difficult issues some people may not want that much structure. The ultimate issue is if the structure will help children as they live through their parents’ breakup. The link below takes you to the proposed language in the statute:
House File 0322 has been introduced now and it provides for "Joint physical custody presumption established, Children's Equal and Shared Parenting Act created, and parenting plans required." Here is a link to the text:
It would create a new section of statute 518.169 that would presume 45.5% of the time to each parent and require the parent who does not like that to prove the other parent should not have that much time. The standard to show the other parent should not get that much time is to show that if the child were in the care of the other parent the state could take the child away based upon being a Child In Need of Protection. In all joint custody cases parents would need to make a parenting plan establishing the time each will spend with the child(ren.) This would be a dramatic change from what we currently have and may be inconsistent with what the panel concluded in the study of the joint custody issue that was required in 2009. Below is the link to the results of that blue ribbon panel study:
You may have heard that the Minnesota Legislature has been making several changes to the law lately with respect to Minnesota Families. You can look up bills and their status here:
You may wish to look up the Minnesota Courts' information including free legal forms. You may also wish to see the Governor's positions on issues at his web page.
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