Custody X Change can help you create a perfect
custody agreement in New Hampshire.
How to Create Your Child Custody Agreement in New Hampshire (NH)
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.
Information for a New Hampshire Custody Agreement
- New Hampshire parents must file a custody agreement with the court.
- Along with information about legal and physical custody, the agreement must contain provisions about supervised parenting time and other parental responsibilities, the legal residence of the child for school attendance, information about transportation and the exchange of the children, information about sharing and access--including if the parents can contact the children through writing or the telephone, a procedure for review and the adjustment of the plan, methods for resolving disputes, and anything else that would enhance the agreement or enable the parents to cooperate better.
- Parents are encouraged to work together and file an agreement that they both support.
- If the parents are unable to agree, the court may order them to attend custody mediation.
- If mediation isn't an option, and if a mediation session isn't successful, the court will decide on the custody agreement after both parents present a proposed agreement to the judge.
- In New Hampshire, the law presumes that it is in the best interest of the child if the parents share legal custody.
- A parent who doesn't have this in their agreement should be prepared to explain why legal custody would harm the child.
- Throughout most of the state, a parent can turn in any document that contains their agreement, as long as it has all of the required information. In some counties, however, parents may need to fill out certain forms or have their agreement laid out in a certain order. Check at the county courthouse for more information.
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.
Parents in New Hampshire Use Custody X Change To
- Create the required custody agreement based on the needs of the child and that the court will accept.
- Compare different custody and visitation schedules so you can customize the schedule to fit everyone's needs.
- Add provisions about legal custody, supervised parenting time, the legal residence of the child for school attendance, transportation for visitation, contact and access to the child, how changes will be made to the plan, how the parents will resolve disputes, and anything else that helps the parents cooperate.
- Work together with the other parent to come up with a joint or shared agreement that everyone supports.
- Prepare sample custody agreements to show at mediation, to show to your attorney, or to show to the other parent.
- Save money in legal fees.
- Represent yourself in court and use the documents from the program to present your agreement to the judge and explain why it is in the best interest of the child.
- Pay or receive the right amount of child support by using the timeshare percentage in the support calculation.
- Track the actual visitation and parenting time so you know if the schedule is being followed.
- Keep a journal about visitation or other custody matters.
- Modify the agreement as your child gets older and the needs change.
- Have peace of mind concerning your custody 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 New Hampshire who have found the easy way to make the best child custody agreement.
The top ten cities in New Hampshire (by population, US Census Bureau, 2008) are: Manchester, Nashua, Concord, Rochester, Dover, Derry, Keene, Portsmouth, Laconia, Claremont.
Additional state custody agreement articles you might want to consider:
Related article (not state-specific): Custody Agreement.
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