(150+)Child visitation is one of the most emotionally charged aspects of family law. Our firm recognizes the seriousness of visitation and what it means to parents. If you need a child visitation lawyer who is ready to advocate for your rights and interests, you’ve found a trusted legal partner in Greenville, SC attorney Angela Frazier.
How Visitation Rights Are Established
Once the judge determines what child custody will look like, either the parents or the court will need to establish a visitation schedule for the non-custodial parent. Courts will usually award sole custody to one parent and reasonable visitation to the other.
Regardless, all custody and visitation decisions must be made with the child’s best interests in mind.
The Visitation Attorney’s Role in Establishing and Modifying a Visitation Order
Your lawyer plays a critical part in establishing a visitation order and modifying that order where changed circumstances have taken place since the prior order was entered. These are just a few services your lawyer will provide:
Explaining the factors the court may use
A parent’s visitation rights in South Carolina are subject to the above-mentioned best interests of the child. To determine what sort of visitation is best for your child, the court will examine such factors as:
- The child’s needs and the visiting parent’s ability to meet them
- The child’s educational, social, and extracurricular interests
- Whether the visiting parent has recently relocated
- Any evidence of abuse or domestic violence
- Efforts of either parent to interfere with the other parent’s relationship with the child
- Other siblings and how visitation and custody may affect them
- The child’s preferences, as appropriate
If you are seeking modification, your lawyer will address the above matters but also ask about what has happened since the previous order. There must be evidence of a material change in circumstances before a modification will be granted.
Obtaining the evidence needed to make your case
Naturally, you will want a visitation schedule that gives you as much time as possible with your child. So you need evidence to show that you are a fit parent, that you can make your proposed schedule work, and that visitation with the child is in his or her best interests.
Attorney Angela Frazier investigates custody and visitation cases to acquire evidence to bolster her client’s positions and refute the opposing party’s arguments. She also uses the discovery process during litigation to compel the opposing party to turn over relevant evidence.
The evidence will touch on matters such as:
- The best interests of the child as detailed above
- The parents’ current and likely future work schedules (which impact how much time they can both spend with the child)
- Parental fitness, meaning the visiting parent’s ability to responsibly care for the child
- Any requests for supervised visitation or conditions placed on visitation
- The likelihood of reasonable communication between the visiting parent and child, when the child spends time with the custodial parent
- Whether one parent has attempted to prevent the child from seeing the other parent
- Other matters as necessary
Mediation and litigation
Mediation is required in most South Carolina visitation and custody cases before a judge will hear them. This gives the parents a unique opportunity to craft a personalized and creative visitation schedule that a judge may not be inclined to order.
Attorney Angela Frazier represents parties during mediation and can help them reach a negotiated settlement that best advances the rights of visiting parents.
However, sometimes litigation is required. This may be because the other parent is being unreasonable or simply because the two parties cannot agree on the visitation details. In this scenario, we will take your case before the judge and seek maximum visitation time for you.
Where circumstances allow, we will also seek an order requiring the other parent to pay some or all of your attorney’s fees and court costs.
Frequently Asked Questions About Visitation Rights in South Carolina
Is there a standard visitation schedule in South Carolina?
When a court grants sole custody to one parent, it usually grants “standard” visitation to the other which consists of:
- Visitation every other weekend, from Friday night through Sunday night
- Visitation every other Wednesday (or another weekday) after school until 8:00 p.m.
- Four weeks of summer visitation
- Alternating holidays
Of course, these details can always be adjusted based on the circumstances of each case.
Are there grandparent rights to child visitation?
State law does not grant general visitation rights to grandparents, but visitation may be permitted in certain situations. The law does allow grandparent visitation when either or both of the parents are deceased, divorced, or are living apart from each other. But the court must make findings regarding parental fitness, the relationship of the grandparents to their grandchildren, and related matters.
Do other third parties have visitation rights?
It may be possible for other individuals, such as non-parent relatives and previous caregivers, to have visitation rights with the child. However, overcoming the objection of biological parents will be a challenge. Retaining a child visitation lawyer can help you argue that such visitation is in the child’s best interests.
Contact Our Greenville Child Visitation Lawyer
Do you have questions about your visitation rights? Are you concerned about how the judge will receive your request for more time with your child? Is the other parent interfering with or threatening to withhold visitation?
To address these and other issues, you need the seasoned legal counsel that attorney Angela Frazier can provide. Give Elliott Frazier — Family, Personal Injury, & Car Accident Attorneys, LLC a call today.
