More states embrace ‘50-50’ child custody in divorce cases

Filed 2h ago · Via Stateline · The Buffoon Desk

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Waltz of Treachery

Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: The White House from Washington, DC · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

Louisiana and Mississippi this year joined at least five other states, including Kentucky, Arkansas, West Virginia, Florida and Missouri, in making equal custody splits the legal default in divorce cases. Supporters, including the National Parents Organization, argue the presumption reduces parental conflict by removing the incentive to disparage an ex to ‘win’ more time.

Critics, including Kentucky mother Kimberly Rummage and Mississippi Rep. Dana McLean, warn the standard could force victims of abuse to remain married or expose infants to disruptive separations from breastfeeding mothers. Judges in Mississippi spoke against the bill, preferring the prior case-by-case approach.

Louisiana's law strengthens the mandate from ‘should’ to ‘shall’ divide custody equally, while Mississippi's law also changes child support formulas to potentially lower payments for the lower-earning parent. A researcher who studied Kentucky's declining divorce rate cautioned against crediting the custody law directly, noting many factors influence divorce decisions.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

A law that tells two people who can't agree on anything to now split everything right down the middle sounds tidy until you remember why they're in family court in the first place. Judges who actually sit in these rooms every day said the old case-by-case system worked better, and legislators overruled them anyway. That's the kind of confidence you usually only see in someone who has never had to referee a custody hearing themselves.

Source: Read the original at Stateline → Scored: Waltz of Treachery · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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