Child custody laws for North Dakota are found in Title 14-09. Within these statutes, parents can find necessary information to help them create a North Dakota custody agreement. Here is a highlight of some of the more pertinent guidelines.
Best Interest of the Child
Title 14-09-06 contains the information that the state considers when determining the best interest of the child. This statute also states very plainly that all custody decisions must be made in the best interest of the child. So, every part of a North Dakota parenting plan must be based on what the child needs. Here are some factors that the court considers when deciding about what is best for the child:
- The love, affection, and other emotional ties existing between the parents and child and the ability of each parent to provide the child with nurture, love, affection, and guidance.
- The ability of each parent to assure that the child receives adequate food, clothing, shelter, medical care, and a safe environment.
- The child’s developmental needs and the ability of each parent to meet those needs, both in the present and in the future.
- The sufficiency and stability of each parent’s home environment, the impact of extended family, the length of time the child has lived in each parent’s home, and the desirability of maintaining continuity in the child’s home and community.
- The willingness and ability of each parent to facilitate and encourage a close and continuing relationship between the other parent and the child.
- The moral fitness of the parents, as that fitness impacts the child.
- The mental and physical health of the parents, as that health impacts the child.
- The home, school, and community records of the child and the potential effect of any change.
- If the court finds by clear and convincing evidence that a child is of sufficient maturity to make a sound judgment, the court may give substantial weight to the preference of the mature child.
- Evidence of domestic violence.
- The interaction and interrelationship, or the potential for interaction and interrelationship, of the child with any person who resides in, is present, or frequents the household of a parent and who may significantly affect the child’s best interests.
- The making of false allegations not made in good faith, by one parent against the other, of harm to a child.
- Any other factors considered by the court to be relevant to a particular parental rights and responsibilities dispute.
Many of these factors affect the North Dakota custody schedule. Parents should think about how they affect custody and visitation.
Grandparent Visitation
Title 14-09-05 gives grandparents and great-grandparents of the child the right to visitation in certain cases. The grandparents must show they have had frequent and continuing contact with the child and that the child will be harmed if that visitation is taken away. The court must also decide that grandparent visitation doesn’t harm the parent-child relationship. If grandparents are given the right to visit, this must be incorporated into the North Dakota visitation schedule.
Authority of the Courts
Title 14-09 gives the court authority to make custody decisions. When parents are able to agree on the parenting plan, the court will usually just accept it. If custody arrangements are contested, the court has the right to determine the plan. They can create a plan or change the existing one if they choose. Parents are usually more satisfied if they can work out the custody agreement together rather than leaving it up to the courts.