Indiana Bill on Joint Legal Custody
Introduced by State Reps. Pond, Lawson L, Noe, Cherry
House Bill 1205
2008 Regular Session
DIGEST OF INTRODUCED BILL
Joint legal custody. Establishes a rebuttable presumption that an award of joint legal custody is in the best interest of a child. Requires a court, if a party seeks to rebut the presumption, to consider: (1) the fitness and suitability of each of the persons awarded joint legal custody; (2) the ability of the parents to communicate and advance the child's welfare; and (3) whether the child has established a close and beneficial relationship with both of the persons awarded joint legal custody. Repeals a provision containing language that is relocated within the Indiana Code. Repeals provisions that provide that a: (1) mother of a child born out of wedlock has sole legal custody of the child; and (2) custodial parent may determine the child's upbringing.
Even with passage of this bill, it will be hard to hold certain courts in this state to this statute. Courts do not always follow state code, and no matter how well meaning the state legislature is, state code has to have more teeth to it to make a parents rights and custody more equal and fair to all the parties, because in the end, it is what is right for the children involved!
It is sad that just like Indiana, most state courts can not be held to standards of any sort, let alone the actual law of the state!
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