Areas of practice

Child Custody

Our Expertise

Mark J. Mansfield & Associates, LLC provides compassionate, legal advice, and counsel with regard to child custody matters, understanding that child custody is often one of the most difficult issues to resolve.

We are here to help divorcing parents achieve fair and beneficial child custody arrangements, often through the processes of mediation, which avoids the stress and uncertainty of trial. Should litigation become necessary to protect our clients’ rights, however, we will go to court and zealously advocate on behalf of our clients’ interests.

Child Custody Laws

Child custody laws in Louisiana distinguish between legal and physical custody of a child. Legal custody refers to the responsibility to make major life decisions for a child, and physical custody refers to where a child will primarily reside.

Child Custudy Laws

Legal & Physical Custody

Sole & Joint Custody

Both legal and physical custody may be sole or joint. In joint legal custody, the parents make major decisions about the child together, such as decisions regarding education, health, and religion, while the smaller, day-to-day decisions are made by the parent who is physically caring for the child at the time. In sole legal custody, only one parent has the right to make major decisions about the child.

Visitation

If one parent is awarded sole physical custody, the other parent is almost always given visitation access to the child, which allows for “frequent and meaningful” parenting time with the child. Under Louisiana child custody laws, visitation may be unsupervised, supervised, or therapeutically supervised.

A lawyer from our firm can also help clients modify a custody or visitation order if there is a material change of circumstances that affects the child’s best interests. Please see our modification and enforcement page for more information about changing a custody or visitation order.

Child Custody

Custody Factors

  • Which parent has been the child’s primary caretaker.
  • The quality of each parent’s home environment.
  • The parenting skills of each parent, their strengths and weaknesses, and their ability to provide for the child’s special needs, if any.
  • Whether there has been domestic violence in the family.
  • The mental and physical health of the parents, including whether either parent drinks or uses drugs.
  • The work schedules and child care plans of each parent.
  • The child’s relationships with brothers, sisters, and members of the rest of the family.
  • If the child is old enough, which parent the child wants to live with.
  • Each parent’s ability to cooperate with the other parent and to encourage a relationship with the other parent, when it is safe to do so.

Schedule A Consultation

Representing the Northshore and Metropolitan New Orleans in Family Law

Get in Touch

To schedule a consultation or learn more about how we can assist you, please reach out by calling the office or using the online contact form below.