Custody & Visitation Basics – 5th Judicial District

Ces informations s'appliquent aux comtés de New York suivants : Onondaga, Oneida, Jefferson, Herkimer, Oswego et Lewis.

Avoir garde à vue signifie être responsable de quelqu’un. Il existe deux types de garde : physique et légale. La même personne a souvent la garde physique et légale – mais pas toujours.

Garde physique c'est lorsqu'un adulte est responsable d'un enfant et s'en occupe la plupart du temps. Habituellement, l'enfant vit avec cet adulte.

Garde légale C'est lorsqu'un adulte a la responsabilité de prendre des décisions importantes – telles que des décisions médicales ou religieuses – concernant la vie d'un enfant.

Unless a court makes another decision, parents have equal rights to physical and legal custody of the child.

In Family Court, joint custody usually refers to joint legal custody. It means that both parents must agree on the important decisions being made about their children. They share this responsibility regardless of which parent lives with the children. The court rarely grants joint physical custody. Usually one parent will have physical custody, and the other parent will have visitation. Les visites signifient que vous pouvez voir votre enfant à certaines heures. Cette répartition entre les visites et la garde physique est parfois appelée temps parental partagé.

Vous déposez un pétition for custody or a petition for visitation in the county where the child has lived for the last six months. A petition is a written request. Judges often make decisions about custody and visitation at the same time. Custody and visitation decisions can be made in Family Court or Supreme Court. The cases usually begin in Family Court unless the parents are in the middle of a divorce. If the parents have a divorce case going on, then custody will usually be decided in Supreme Court along with the divorce.

Sometimes custody and visitation cases are heard by a referee. Referees are similar to judges. They make decisions about custody and visitation. Referees do not hear cases that involve orders of protection. In this guide, everything we say about judges is true for referees, unless the case involves an order of protection.

No. Many times parents can come to an agreement without going to court. They often use mediation. Mediation is when someone called a mediator helps you and the other parent come to an agreement. However, mediation is not a good idea when there has been domestic violence. If you are interested in mediation, ask a Family Legal Care staff member for the name of a center near you.

Sometimes the court will send you to mediation after you start your case. If that happens, the mediator can help you come to a decision about your situation. If you are able to come to an agreement, you can let the judge know what it is. If the judge agrees with you, the judge can make it into an order.

Anyone who plays an important role in the life of the child may ask the court for custody. You do not have to be a parent of the child. But the judge will revoir, or look at, the case differently if you are not a parent. This is talked about later in the guide.

Il existe de nombreuses raisons pour lesquelles vous pourriez vouloir engager une procédure de garde. Voici quelques raisons courantes :

• If you are not living with your children and you want to
• If you believe your children are being harmed where they live now or are in danger of being harmed
• If you are not married to the other parent, and you want a court to say what your rights are

When two biological parents want custody, a judge must determine what is in the meilleurs intérêts of the child. The judge will look at many things when figuring this out. The case will not bedecided based on who loves the child more or who has more money. The judge does not favor a mother over a father, even if the case involves a young child. The judge will look at who has been the main person taking care of the child up until now.

As part of the process, the judge may order that a report be written. A caseworker from the local Department of Social Services will visit the homes of both parents and write a report to the judge about what the homes were like and with whom the caseworker spoke.

Please note: Even though the caseworker is from the Department of Social Services, it does not mean that someone has said that you have hurt your children.

Most children are given an avocat (lawyer) by the court to represent them in the custody cases. The attorney is called a gardien de la loi ou avocat de l'enfant. The law guardian’s job is to tell the judge what the child wants. If the child is old enough to say what he or she wants, it will have a lot of importance. However, the court and the law guardian will want to be sure that it is what the child really wants, not what one parent has asked the child to say. It is very important that you do not tell a child what to say.

Les choses changent parfois après que le tribunal a rendu une ordonnance de garde ou de visite. Cela s'appelle un changement de circonstances. If this happens, you can file a petition to modify the old order. Modify means to change. The judge will hear the case and can make a new order.

When a judge is deciding a custody case between a parent and someone who is not a parent, different things will be considered. First, the judge will decide whether there are circonstances extraordinaires. Examples of some extraordinary circumstances are: when a court has determined that there has been abuse or neglect; the child has been harmed by continued domestic violence; or when there is substance abuse in the home of the parent. It might also mean that the non-parent (a person who is not a parent) has been caring for the child for a very long time. It is automatically considered to be an extraordinary circumstance if a grandparent has been caring for a child for two years.

If there are extraordinary circumstances, the judge will decide what is in the best interests of the child. If there are no extraordinary circumstances, the judge will give the biological parent custody.

Si vous ne souhaitez pas la garde, mais souhaitez rendre visite à votre enfant, vous devez déposer une demande de visite. The court will almost always allow a parent to visit with the child.

S'il y a preuve montrant que vos visites mettront l’enfant en danger (le blesseront). La preuve est une information présentée au tribunal pour prouver une affaire. Des exemples de choses que le tribunal pourrait considérer comme dangereuses sont des problèmes de drogue ou d'alcool, des antécédents d'abus sexuels sur l'enfant ou l'exposition d'un enfant à la violence domestique.

Souvent, si le tribunal estime que l’enfant serait en danger, il ordonnera des visites surveillées. Cela signifie que quelqu'un d'autre est là pour vous surveiller pendant que vous visitez l'enfant. Cela peut se faire dans une agence ou par une personne sur laquelle les deux parents sont d'accord.

Yes. Parents have a right to visit with their children at least once every two weeks if the children are in foster care. However, if a parent’s rights have been terminated, he or she does not have the right to visit the child. For more information, please see Family Legal Care’s guide, “Résiliation des droits parentaux.”

Grandparents and siblings can petition for visitation with children. The judge will order visitation if special circumstances have led to the person not being able to visit with the child and if it is in the best interests of the child.

The following is an example of a special circumstance: You are a grandparent and your child died. Before your child died, you saw your grandchild often. Now you never see your grandchild.

Many times the court will order that the child has to be picked up and dropped off at a police station or some other safe place so that the parents will have no contact with each other.

Si le tribunal estime qu'il y a eu de la violence domestique dans le foyer et que l'enfant serait en danger physique ou émotionnel s'il passait du temps seul avec la personne, le juge peut également ordonner des visites surveillées.

No. Child support and visitation are separate matters. The courts believe that it is best for children to spend time with both parents.

In fact, a judge may punish a parent who stops visits by the other parent without permission from the court. Many times the judge will keep the visits going, regardless of whether or not the parent is paying child support.

Vous pouvez déposer un pétition pour violation en cour. Cela permet au juge de savoir ce qui ne va pas. Voici quelques exemples de violations : manquer des visites, arriver en retard aux visites, agir de manière inappropriée avec l'enfant pendant les visites et ramener l'enfant tard. Parfois, un juge augmentera ou diminuera les visites en raison de la violation. Dans certains cas, le juge arrêtera toutes les visites. Dans d'autres cas, le juge peut même modifier la garde.

Oui. Dans l'État de New York, vous pouvez désigner, ou nommez quelqu'un pour prendre soin de vos enfants si vous êtes malade et que vous n'êtes pas en mesure de le faire. La personne que vous désignez est appelée un gardien de réserve. Les tuteurs de réserve peuvent être des amis ou des parents. Il n'est pas nécessaire d'être malade pour désigner un tuteur de réserve. Vous ne renoncez pas à la garde lorsque vous désignez un tuteur de réserve.

You can designate a standby guardian by filing a petition in either Family Court or Surrogate’s Court. There is also a special form that you can fill out that lets you temporarily designate a person to care for your children without going to court first. This form is called a Designation of Person in Parental Relationship.

Ce document ne doit pas remplacer une consultation avec un avocat. Family Legal Care encourage toutes les personnes impliquées dans les systèmes judiciaires pénaux et familiaux à consulter un avocat.