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Your Software is Great

"I just want to let you know that your software is great and easy to use. My son’s mom and I don’t agree on much, but we do try to make adjustments to accommodate my son’s many activities. It is great to get my son’s baseball schedule in March, look at my Custody Xchange calendar, and know that what nights in April, May, and June we are going to switch. Thanks again."

Frank Ryan
Meriden, CT

The Judge Adopted my Plan

"It can be tailored made to fit your unique schedule with holidays and vacations, plus it breaks the time share down so you can come up with a true shared parenting schedule. It helped me so much and I was pro se against a family law specialist, the judge adopted my plan that I came up with using custody exchange. Thank you so much it was invaluable."

Stacie Staples
Arroyo Grande, CA

I Recommend it to Other Family Law Practitioners

"I have used the Custody X Software in some complicated custody cases and have found it a very useful tool. Many people are very visual and the ability to lay out custody schedules years in advance has been helpful. I have found the software very easy to use and would highly recommend it to other family law practitioners."

Meredith W. Ditchen
Woodstock, GA
www.ditchenlaw.com

California Custody Agreement

Custody X Change can help you create a perfect
custody agreement in California.

How to Create Your Child Custody Agreement in California (CA)

Creating your child custody agreement is the most important thing you'll do in your custody situation. The custody agreement contains the information about how parents will divide parental responsibility, share time with the children, and continue to care and provide for the children. The custody agreement turns into the custody order, making it a legal document that the parents must follow. Therefore, it is crucial that parents take the time and effort to make the best custody agreement possible.

Creating a Child Custody Agreement

The first step in making your child custody agreement is to understand the definitions of physical custody and legal custody.

Physical custody means the time the child is with the parent and in the parent's care.
Physical custody can be given to one parent--a sole physical custody agreement--with visitation to the other parent, or parents may have a joint physical custody agreement where they both spend significant time caring for the children (although, in a joint custody agreement, the time doesn't have to be exactly equal).
Legal custody refers to the rights and responsibilities the parents have over making decisions for the child. This includes decisions about education, medical and dental care, religion, child care, driving privileges, extra-curricular activities, etc.
A mother or father may have sole legal custody over the children, or they may share joint legal custody. Parents can have joint legal custody without sharing joint physical custody.

Basically, your custody agreement contains information about how you and the other parent will share and divide legal and physical custody and a plan for how you will make those arrangements work.

For physical custody, the parents should include a complete custody and visitation schedule, a holiday schedule, and include any days or events where the custody situation changes.
For legal custody, the agreement should contain the process for how decisions will be made and how the decision making responsibility will be shared.
Parents can also include more provisions in their agreement that provide rules that help the parents work out custody issues. For example, many agreements have provisions that outline how transportation for visits will be handled.
Anything else that will help the custody arrangements go more smoothly and help the parents cooperate should also be put in the agreement.

Information for Custody Agreements in California

A California custody agreement should be made in the child's best interest and meet the child's needs for love, protection, guidance, diet, medical care, etc.
The agreement becomes a court order after both parents and a judge sign the agreement and it is filed with the court.
If the parents are not able to cooperate on an agreement, they should each prepare a plan to present to the court.
The judge will listen to the mother and father and then make the final decisions about the custody arrangements.
The custody agreements that the parents present should include the information about physical custody and where the children spend their time.
A schedule that includes where the child is during weekdays, weekends, holidays, vacations, and other activities should be part of the agreement.
The parents should also have information about legal custody and how they will make the decisions about their child.
In California, parents must file a series of papers in order to submit their agreement to the court (and there are different papers depending on if parents agree or not).
The papers that have to be filed, and the order they need to be filed in, vary according to the county where you live. Check with your county courthouse to find out the exact process.

How Custody X Change can Help

Custody X Change is child custody software that lets parents create custody agreements that have all of the information about physical and legal custody. The program helps you make an agreement that the court will accept and make into a custody order. With the software you can:

Make a complete custody and visitation schedule with a repeating cycle of custody, a holiday schedule, vacation time, and special events.
Include information about how legal custody will be divided and shared between the parents.
View the exact timeshare percentage that each parent has with the children so you can create the best schedule for your situation.
Add important provisions and stipulations to help the custody arrangements work better.
Print professional reports that contain your agreement, including a written and calendar form of the custody schedule, a list of the included provisions, and a detailed timeshare percentage document.
Track what is going on with your custody situation by marking the actual time that each parent has the children, keeping a visitation journal, and printing a report that shows the difference between actual and scheduled time with the children.
Export all of the reports to Word, PDF, and Excel.
Sync your custody and visitation schedule to your Blackberry, iPhone, Palm/PDA, Outlook, Google Calendar, Yahoo Calendar, Windows Live, etc.

Custody X Change Helps Parents in California

Make an agreement that is in the child's best interest and that meets the child's needs for love, protection, guidance, diet, medical care, etc.
Use the documents from Custody X Change to attach your agreement to the papers of the court and file your agreement.
Create the right parenting time schedule by looking at different options and customizing the schedule to fit your needs.
Include helpful provisions about legal custody, making decisions, making future changes to the agreement, working out disputes, transportation for visitation, etc.
Ease the tension when working with the other parent to create a joint custody agreement by using the program to objectively look at the issues.
Prepare example agreements for mediation and easily incorporate suggested changes.
Present an agreement to a judge and use the professional documents to explain how it benefits the child.
Save money in legal fees by doing the work of making your agreement yourself.
Pay or receive an accurate amount of child support by using the timeshare calculation when figuring out your child support.
Track the actual amount of time that each parent has with the child to ensure that the agreement is followed.
Keep a custody journal about visitation and other events and issues.
Modify the agreement at any time and print out copies of the new calendar and plan.
Have greater overall satisfaction in your agreement because you personalized it to your child and your situation.

You can get a free thirty day trial of Custody X Change by entering your name and email at the top of the page. Join the others in California who have found the easy way to make the best child custody agreement.

The top twenty cities in California (by population, CDF estimates, 2009) are: Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco, Fresno, Long Beach, Sacramento, Oakland, Santa Ana, Anaheim, Bakersfield, Riverside, Stockton, Chula Vista, Fremont, Irvine, Modesto, Glendale, San Bernadino, and Huntington Beach.

Additional state custody agreement articles you might want to consider:

Related article (not state-specific): Custody Agreement.

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