Kane County Visitation and Parenting Time Attorneys

Experienced Visitation Lawyers Serving St. Charles, Aurora, and Northern Illinois

When unmarried parents raise a child together there are a lot of decisions that must be made. As of January 1, 2016, the laws in Illinois pertaining to unmarried parents and their very important decisions changed significantly. One significant change was to the concept of visitation. Under previous law, the non-custodial parent was entitled to reasonable visitation with the child. The new law is rewritten to acknowledge that both parents are integral in a child's life and are not "visiting" their child. Instead of a right to visitation, the new law affords parents the right to reasonable parenting time.

At Shaw Sanders, P.C., we have 30 years of experienced handling visitation matters in divorce or paternity cases. We understand how important parenting time is especially for the non-residential parent. Our attorneys strongly advocate for our clients' goals in creating a parenting time schedule.

Allocating Parenting Time in Illinois

In addition to visitation laws changing, so too did child custody laws. Instead of determining who has sole or joint custody of a child, the court will now allocate who will be responsible for significant decisions in the the child's life. Despite this change, the court will still typically designate one parent as the residential parent and the child will reside with that parent the majority of the time. The other parent is the one who must then assert his or her right to parenting time.

There is no standard parenting time allotment such as every other weekend, alternate holidays and birthdays, the occasional sleep over, and a vacation each year. Just as each family is unique, each family will have its own priorities for parenting time. We work closely with our clients and strive to negotiate an arrangement that is mutually satisfactory for all parties. Resolving these matters amicably is always preferred as it allows parents to move forward parenting together without a winner/loser dynamic. Finding a win-win parenting time scenario is not always possible, however, and we are always ready to litigate these matters at trial.

To learn more about the changes to visitation laws and how those changes apply to your situation, contact Shaw Sanders, P.C. by calling 630-584-5550 to schedule a free consultation. We will meet with you, discuss your family situation, listen to your objectives, answer your questions, and work with you to create a strategy to achieve your goals. From our office in St. Charles, Illinois, our attorneys work with clients throughout Kane, DuPage, DeKalb, and Kendall Counties.