Regain Custody/Shared Custody

[needslegalhelp]

Girlfriend needs to file for visitation.

Dad is NOT required to provide an accounting of child support - it's paid to reimburse him for the cost of raising the child. He could, if he chooses, spend the entire amount on beer and movies provided the child is housed, fed and clothed.

I'll be blunt. Part of the problem is that your girlfriend hasn't, before now, done much to facilitate her own relationship with her daughter. That does matter, and the fact that she and her daughter have seen each other infrequently is also a strike against your girlfriend. Realistically, girlfriend COULD have been doing a lot more to get things going.

She also appears to have very little to justify changing physical custody at the moment. At this point, girlfriend simply wanting to change custody isn't a good enough reason.

what are typically reasons a judge won't allow shared custody?

 

[Proserpina]

what are typically reasons a judge won't allow shared custody?

Usually, courts prefer that parents have joint legal custody at the very least and it's becoming more popular, when feasible, to have joint physical custody. This is decided based upon what is in the best interests of the child. The problem I see is that your girlfriend simply hasn't been in the child's life with any consistency, you know? She needs to first get a regular visitation schedule set up, and stick to it like glue and THEN consider shared physical custody.

This isn't about proving who is better, Mom or Dad - it's about making sure the child's welfare is the first priority.

But your girlfriend must ask herself this question:

Would it be truly in her daughter's best interest to be uprooted from her home, her school, everything, to go and live with a parent with whom she's had very little physical contact over the past few years?

See where I'm coming from?