Custody X Change can help you create a perfect
custody agreement in Mississippi.
How to Create Your Child Custody Agreement in Mississippi (MS)
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.
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.
Every state has different laws governing the custody agreement. Here is the important information to know if you are making a custody agreement in Mississippi.
- Mississippi parents should create their child custody agreement in the best interest of the child.
- It is best if the parents are able to agree on the components of the agreement because if they can't the court has the final decision about the custody arrangements.
- If the parents go to court, each parent should prepare a proposed custody agreement to present to the court.
- The agreement should have documents that outline all of the information about physical and legal custody so the judge can quickly understand the plan.
- The judge can decide to accept either parents' agreement, take elements from both agreements, or create an entire new agreement.
- Once an agreement has been accepted by the courts, the parents are legally obligated to follow it. Failure to do so can result in a parent being held in contempt of court.
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 Mississippi
- Create the necessary Mississippi custody agreement that has all of the requirements for the state.
- Make a parenting time schedule that shows where the child is every day of the year by exploring options until you find what you like.
- Include provisions about transportation and exchange issues, the allocation of decision making responsibility, how the parents can contact the children, or anything else that will help your situation.
- Save money in legal fees by working on your own custody case.
- Take out the tension and stress when working with the other parent by using the software to objectively look at different issues and make decisions.
- Prepare multiple example agreements to show at mediation or to the other parent.
- Work with an attorney to come up with the agreement you want.
- Present an agreement in court using the documents from the software to explain how the plan helps your child.
- Pay or receive the right amount of child support by using the timeshare percentage from the software to calculate it.
- Keep track of the actual visitation time and compare it to the scheduled time to know if the schedule is being followed.
- Write a visitation journal and keep track of other important events.
- Modify the agreement at any time to accommodate the changing needs of your child.
- Feel secure and confident about your custody situation and your relationship with your child.
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 Mississippi who have found the easy way to make the best child custody agreement.
The top twenty cities in Mississippi (by population, US Census Bureau, 2008) are: Jackson, Gulfport, Hattiesburg, Biloxi, Southhaven, Meridian, Tupelo, Greenville, Olive Branch, Clinton, Vicksburg, Horn Lake, Pearl, Starkville, Columbus, Pascagoula, Brandon, Ridgeland, Laurel, Clarksdale.
Additional state custody agreement articles you might want to consider:
Related article (not state-specific): Custody Agreement.
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