Minnesota parents who go through a divorce are usually awarded joint legal custody by the court. This means that both parents have equal rights to make decisions about certain aspects of their children’s lives. When parents share joint custody, they won’t always agree on parenting decisions, and disputes may arise.
Divorced parents may have major disagreements about parenting decisions such as what school to enroll their child in, what doctor to send their child to or how to schedule parenting time. There are also an infinite number of lesser conflicts that could come up while two people are sharing parenting responsibilities. Disagreements about things like bed times, extracurricular activities and vacations could all cause disputes between divorced parents.
Although some people go to court to resolve all of their child custody disputes, litigation is not always necessary or even appropriate. A judge will likely be indifferent to minor parenting disputes that do not involve major changes to the child custody plan. Instead of going before a judge to resolve conflicts, divorced parents may want to try mediation, co-parenting counseling or co-parenting coordination.
Sometimes divorced parents are not able to resolve conflicts outside of court because communication is extremely strained or the conflicts involve very serious custody and visitation issues. A family law attorney may be able to have a conversation with a divorced parent about these disputes and advise the parent about the best way to go about trying to resolve them. An attorney can represent a divorced parent’s interests whether the parent chooses mediation or litigation.