Joint Custody Agreement Template

A custody agreement template is a legal contract that is signed between two biological parents. This agreement comes in handy when separated, or divorced parents require custody of their children. The possession of a child is a big responsibility as it is related to the protection of the child.

Instead of sole custody, parents feel comfortable signing a joint custody agreement. This agreement gives equal decision-making power to the parents. A parent can spend a limited time with the child when this agreement is enforced. This agreement imposes certain obligations to the parents for the betterment of the child.

What is the Joint Custody Agreement?

When two people decide to separate their ways and wish to live independently, the first thing that may come to their minds is their kids. The separating parents want to keep kids in their self-governance. It should be kept in mind that kids do not belong to one parent but are somewhat connected to both of them. Hence, both parents have equal rights to make decisions for their kids.

Parents argue in distributing the rights among themselves. To end such disputes and inequality of rights between biological parents, a joint custody agreement is signed. This agreement remains valid until the child gets 18 years old or any of the parents dies.

In a joint custody agreement form, both the parents share equal rights to make significant decisions for kids. People often mix the terminologies of joint custody.

According to law, when parents sign joint legal custody, both parents have authority over the kid, but the child lives with one parent only. In other cases, the child lives with both parents equally. Under these laws, one parent cannot decide independently without the consent of the other parent. This agreement enables the contract holders to cooperate and work together for the betterment of their children.

Terms and Conditions in a Joint Custody Agreement

A custody agreement template is a legitimate contract. It has some specific rules and regulations that are required to be followed by both parents. Some of these terms and conditions are as follows.

• Plan for Visiting the Child: This agreement decides the time to visit the child for each parent. In this section, a weekly schedule of the kid is maintained, which is followed throughout the year. Besides the regular schedule, the child’s holiday schedule is also designed based on the national holidays and school vacations. Parents spend time with the child according to these schedules.
• Parents Responsibilities: Under this clause, the parents decide whether they will follow joint legal custody or shared custody. The contract holders discuss the insurance issues for the kid and write in this agreement. Other issues like education, medication, religious matters are also stated in this clause.
• Details about Child Support: In the 50/50 custody agreement, template parents estimate the time to be spent with the child. This is done by using specific formulas that use each parent's number of children and income to give the required result.
• Other Provisions: In this contract, parents agree that one parent won't portray another parent's negative image. Other than this, parents choose a medium to discuss issues related to children.

Checklist When Signing the Joint Custody Agreement

Before signing the 50/50 custody agreement template, both biological parents must check certain things to avoid future misunderstandings. Following is the list of these critical clauses:

• Necessary Credentials: Both parents must check the name spelling in the form. It is a must to check that the identification stated in the form is valid.
• Type of Agreement Chosen: To avoid misinterpretation, parents must learn all the facts about the selected agreement before signing the document. They can easily have access to lots of agreement templates online.
• Reasons for Altering the Agreement: Parents must confirm the reasons that would cause them to modify the agreement in the future.
• Holiday Calendar: This is the most important clause to be verified. According to this schedule, parents would meet the child over prescribed times. In case this calendar is not designed correctly, it may lead to serious confusion between both parents.
• Methods to Handle Disputes: It is better to decide before time rather than face the consequences later. This clause is vital to validate as it will resolve future conflicts between parents.
• Child Exchanging Terms: Before the agreement is signed, the parents must check the decided picking up and dropping off compulsions.
• Notice Period: Parents are obligated to notify other parents before certain unusual situations. This notice period must be decided reasonably and checked carefully before finalizing the agreement.

How to Create a Joint Custody Agreement Online

Some specific steps are needed to be followed to create an effective 50/50 custody agreement template. The steps that are required to fulfill this job are explained below:

Choosing a powerful online tool: First of all, to create this agreement, there is a need to select a tool. For this purpose, the user can choose CocoDoc. This online tool allows the user to choose from multiple child custody agreement templates and edit them accordingly.

1. Adding Basic Information: The next step is to add the names of people involved in this contract. This section requires complete contact information along with the terms of the parents and children.
2. Including Custody Related Details: This step requires deciding and writing the suitable custody arrangement for the child. Parents can decide between shared or legal joint custody.
3. Establishing Visiting Timetables: Under this step, parents observe the school timetable of the kid and create a visiting schedule for themselves.
4. Finalizing Parents’ Responsibilities and Duties: The next step allows parents to divide the duties and responsibilities regarding the child.
5. Splitting Child’s Expenses: This is the most crucial step that enables the parents to split the child's expenses. This split of the expenditure is done according to the income of each parent.
6. Signing the Document: Finally, both parents sign the document after thoroughly verifying it.

Conclusion

A custody agreement template is a contract that resolves disputes between separated parents. This contract sets terms and conditions for meeting the child after parents have parted ways. In this article, the reader may have explored different aspects of this contract.

This article specifies different circumstances upon which this agreement is applicable. The reader can use CocoDoc to create, draft and edit multiple contracts. For the ease of the user, there are different sample joint custody agreements available over the internet for free.