In your initial divorce proceedings, you may have fought to gain sole physical and legal custody rights over your child. When enough time passes after your divorce, and your former spouse’s personal circumstances evolve, they may find themselves in the right space to play an active role in your child’s life once more. That is, they may want to share these custody rights with you. With that being said, please follow along to find out whether your child’s other parent can regain custody after it is lost and how a proficient Bergen County child custody attorney at McNerney & McAuliffe can serve as your and your child’s advocate.
Why might a parent lose custody rights?
You may not have fought for sole custody to be spiteful toward your soon-to-be former spouse. Rather, you may have simply wanted to protect your child’s physical safety and emotional well-being. In other words, you may have had legitimate reasons to believe that your former spouse was unfit to take on a parental role for your child. And so, in your custody proceedings, you may have brought any one of the following issues to the attention of the New Jersey family court:
- Your former spouse has an ongoing drug or alcohol abuse issue.
- Your former spouse has a recent history of child abuse or neglect.
- Your former spouse has a diagnosed yet untreated mental illness.
- Your former spouse has been ordered to serve a jail or prison sentence.
- Your former spouse has moved out and into an unsafe living space.
How can a parent regain custody if it is lost?
Even though your marriage did not work out, you may be rooting for your former spouse’s success for your child’s sake. That is, you may hope that they turn a corner in their life that makes them capable of handling parental rights once more. Once you sincerely believe they have, you may encourage them to file a post-judgment modification with the New Jersey family court that handled your initial divorce case.
At the end of the day, the court finds it in your child’s best interest to maintain a relationship with both their parents. So they may be receptive to hearing your former spouse’s case. Essentially, they must demonstrate how they have made changes to their personal circumstances, along with how the child would positively benefit from these changes.
For example, if the initial issue was their living space, they may prove their change in address to a residence in a nice town with a fine school system. Or, that you have taken the proper precautions to “childproof” your residence and have even designated a personal space for your child (i.e., playroom, private bedroom, etc). Lastly, you have employed reliable childcare services to ensure your child’s safety and supervision when you must be at work.
This matter may obviously be important to you, and you may want the best possible outcome. So please, do not fight this without a talented Bergen County family law attorney in your corner. The team at McNerney & McAuliffe is here at your command.