When children are at stake during a child custody dispute, most loving parents would take any necessary legal measure to help secure at least half custody of their kids. Our private investigation agency’s family and divorce mediators and the child custody attorneys our legal firm work with have helped plenty of clients going through separation, divorce, and child custody disputes. These custody battles are often messy, complicated, and the kids often suffer while the parents attempt to work things out in court or during mediation sessions. This is where our private eyes, mediators, and civil attorneys come in to help resolve the issue.
Every client we help always has one main question in mind: “How do I win custody of my children?” A better question would be more like, “What is in the best interest of my children?” Most parents are so caught up in their own issues, wants, needs, and desires, that they fail to ask themselves and one another these vital questions and give their kids the consideration and attention they need. Indeed, both parents may have differing views on who can best raise the children or if they should share custody, or one parent may be homophobic or transphobic while the other is not a bigot and has empathy. Either way, when parents need help, our private detective agency in Moore is ready to step in to help.
Factors That Weigh in Favor of a Parent Having Full or Partial Custody of Children:
Whenever considering which parent should have custody of the children or whether each parent should have partial custody, courts consider many different factors. Judges and state laws in modern times normally go into it with the idea that both parents deserve equal, 50-50 legal custody, unless other circumstances exist which make this a bad idea. The parents themselves can also decline custody of their kids, opting to instead just offer financial support known as child support payments. Our family law attorneys and child custody private detective typically note that the following positive factors usually weigh in favor of parents seeking full or partial custody of their kids:
Stable Employment with Sufficient Income:
Kids need love, kindness, and empathy to grow up to be healthy adults. They also need money, because in modern times, children have increasingly become much more expensive than they used to be. Thus, parents should have a stable financial plan and plenty of monetary resources in which they can best thrive and grow up healthy, happy, and having adults in their lives cover their needed expenses. If one or both parents lack these needed financial resources with which to properly raise their kids even when factoring in other sources of income like child custody payments, it will not bode well for child custody and placement.
Little or No Criminal History/Current Criminal Charges:
An absence of criminal history is a definite plus for parents seeking custody of their kids. The more severe the criminal activity one or both parents have, the less likely it is that they will receive custody over their kids. This is particularly true in criminal cases like murder, drug activity, and sexual assault/rape offenses. Having a clean and clear criminal background helps tilt the child custody scales of justice in favor of those with nothing on their records to cause a judge or the Oklahoma Department of Human Services (DHS) to call their lives and capabilities into question.
Positive Home Environment with a Separate Bedroom for Each Child:
Courts and the Oklahoma Department of Human Services normally require each child in a home to have access to her/his/their own bedroom and especially a bed. While some rural places like Savoonga, Alaska, may not have these requirements because almost no one there has that, other places do mandate something similar.
Our family and divorce mediators will also mention the issue of home life and what both sides feel they can provide to support their kids with each parent who is seeking custody over her/his/their kids. Indeed, establishing a stable, loving home is a vital component to these situations, whether as part of courtroom lawsuits or child and family mediation services.
Absence of Drugs/Alcohol Addictions:
Parents who are free of addictions to drugs and alcohol statistically make better parents. Indeed, our divorce private detective has witnessed far too many kids growing up in home environment where alcohol, illicit drugs, prescription pill misuse, and even tobacco use are present. These things damage both the children and the adults in the home. Thus, the best family law attorneys will be quick to call out this behavior in legal filings and courtroom child custody battles.
Established, Loving, Parent/Child Relationship:
If the kids and parents get along, courts view this as a good thing. Indeed, every child should have kind, loving parents who care about them and help them grow into healthy adults. Building trust, mutual respect, showing unconditional love, and teaching empathy and compassion are essential for raising healthy children. Too many divorce private investigations that our legal team handles sees too many toxic parents who weaponize their children in bitter custody fights and divorce proceedings.
Which Parent(s) a Child Desires to Live with – For Older Kids:
State laws like 43 O.S. § 43-113 rightfully help grant kids a fair say in which parent(s) they live with. By age twelve, children get to make their voice known to the judge. While kids’ custody wishes are not legally binding, their wishes certainly do count. Courts and the Oklahoma Department of Human Services (OKDHS) consider their desires as one of many considerations.
Please note that the items our family and divorce mediators listed above constitute just some of the many positive factors that judges can and often do consider as positive when awarding custody in favor of one or both parents. They then balance the items above with any of the negative factors that our family law lawyers will discuss momentarily below.
Factors That Weigh Against a Parent Having Full or Partial Custody of Children:
Just as judges and magistrates take positive things into account when weighing whom to award custody of kids to, so, too, do they factor in the negative aspects about each parent’s suitability. Family law attorneys and child custody private eyes at our legal firm note that these considerations often include, but are not limited to, the following:
Alcohol/Drug Issues:
Just as an absence of drug and alcohol abuse works in favor of parents seeking to secure partial or full custody of their children, so, too, is an active drug/alcohol problem a major issue in custody battles. Indeed, alcohol and drug use can have terrible effects on parents and kids alike, leading to criminal activity and instability for children inside of a home. If a judge suspects that a parent has a drug problem, it will have an impact on the amount of custody that person can have over the children.
Kids of drug and alcohol abusers often grow up to have the same kinds of issues. Thus, ensuring that children have a drug-free environment in which to live is crucial to the development of healthy, functional kids that grow into toxic-free adults. Drug and alcohol abuse have no place whatsoever inside any home, especially one with children inside of it, note our divorce private investigators.
Lack of Employment/Unstable Income:
Kids cost money, life costs money. So, if one parent has no stable place of sustained employment that provides a sound income that meets the basic family needs. While child support from other parents and other sources of income can certainly come into play, the total income levels must be sufficient for things like food, shelter, clothing, medical care, etc. If, after the judge tallies all income sources a parent still does not have enough to financially support the kids, it will weigh as a negative factor when awarding child custody.
A Judge Has Terminated the Parental Rights of the Kids in Question. or Those Regarding Other Children:
When judges terminate a parent’s rights, it happens for good reason. If they have been committing murders, sexual assaults, or have done other things we have discussed herein that are so egregious as to warrant the termination of parental rights, then it can sure happen. If the judge has previously terminated the parent’s legal rights to other children or to the kid in question, then that individual will not receive custody. Our civil law attorneys in OKC note that there is a formal process for this to occur, but it can indeed happen given the right circumstances.
The Person is Neither the Biological nor Adoptive Parent:
Parents who have no biological or adoptive connection to the kids they are seeking custody of have no legal right to have the kids. However, adoptions and guardianships through the courts can and do sometimes occur, depending on the circumstances. Judges, civil attorneys in Oklahoma City, the parents, guardians ad litem, social workers, and others must hash all that out in court.
Older Kids’ Desire Not to Live with a Particular Parent:
As kids get older and turn twelve, judges let them have a say in which parent or parents they wish to live with. The child’s wishes are not the sole determining factor in awarding custody at this age, but the best family law attorneys and mediators know that it certainly plays a role in the decision-making process. 43 O.S. § 43-113 is the law that judges use to allow kids to help decide where they stay.
History of Domestic Violence:
If either parent has issues with domestic violence, it will not bode well for that individual. Judges do not take kindly to domestic abuse by any person, especially from a family’s parents. Without a home environment that is safe and free from violence, children simply cannot grow into healthy adults. Violence has zero place in any home environment, especially one with minor children living inside of it.
Our criminal private detective has done countless family and divorce private investigations that have involved domestic abuse situations. Working together with law enforcement and Oklahoma Child Protective Services (CPS), our private detective agency helps its clients break free of the cycle of abuse and achieve legal justice in the courts. This often takes the shape of surveillance investigations that lead to successful victim protection order (VPO) applications and our clients receiving custody of their children.
Criminal History/Current Charges:
Having a criminal history, especially a significant one involving felonies and especially sexual abuse or child neglect, are disqualifying dealbreakers where many judges draw the line. This is especially true, if one or both parents have ended up on the Oklahoma Sex Offender Registry or the National Sex Offender Registry. So, if both parents who are seeking custody of their kids have an absence of criminal activity, it will certainly help their case in court. Indeed, committing crimes is not often society views as setting a good role model for one’s children.
Poor Parent/Child Relationship:
How well the kids get along can also have a significant impact on the custody arrangements. If the children and one of the parents are always fighting, they will not want to live there with that person and indeed cannot grow up to be functional, healthy adults in homes filled with constant chaos and strife. Judges who see a history of dysfunctional relationships with their children are unlikely to grant much, if any, custodial rights to that parent, note our Oklahoma divorce attorneys.
History of Intentionally Causing Parental Alienation with the Kids’ Other Parents:
Some parents are just awful. Our private eyes have sadly seen many couples engage in bitter fighting and disagreements, with some engaging in toxic parental alienation tactics. Some atrocious parents try to deny the other one of having any custody and/or may badmouth the other parent. Seeking to undermine the parent-child relationship is yet another factor that courts do not look kindly upon, but which our child custody private investigator sadly sees happen far too often.
Unstable/Insufficient Home Environment:
Just like with plants, kids need a healthy, stable, loving nurturing environment in which to grow and thrive. Courts and governmental agencies like the Oklahoma Department of Human Services (DHS) will often do home inspections to see if the house the kids will be living in is safe. If there are weapons, drugs, pornography, or other deleterious, prohibited items or dangerous people lurking in or around the home, then courts will deny custody to the parent(s).
History of Parental Abductions with the Kids:
As mentioned earlier, parents must grant the appropriate custodial rights to each other per the court orders. When one parent gets greedy or defiant and violates the child custody agreement/court order, then our parental kidnapping private investigators and process servers must often intervene and help locate the missing parent and abducted kid(s). When it comes to this extreme, the judge in the case is unlikely to grant many custodial rights, if any, to the offending parent.
To circumvent this, some parents will simply hire a family law attorney in the new state and will file a child custody lawsuit in that new state instead. With the right lawyer and a lucky judge draw, the owners of our PI agency have seen far too many parents thumb their noses at the legal justice system. They care nothing about those they harm, and entropy ensues.
These are just a few of the factors which way in favor and against parents who are seeking to establish legal custody of their children. These lists are not exhaustive or entirely comprehensive. Courts will take the opinions of the parents, minor children if they are at least twelve years old, guardians ad litem, the attorneys, social workers, medical doctors, and others who have also have a personal stake in the wellbeing of the children. Indeed, these child custody investigations our firm does really can grow quite complex and involved.
If you want more information about this topic or need to locate a private investigator to help you with a family and divorce issue, then please contact us for more information. Our legal team will gladly provide the needed assistance. Nobody beat our agency’s low prices, customer service, and overall satisfaction! We are a women-owned organization and have helped legal clients in Oklahoma, the entire USA, and abroad for decades.
