Merrisa L. Coleman-Bishop - Santa Clara County Child Custody

Contact San Jose child custody and parenting time attorney Merrisa Coleman-Bishop if you need help establishing your right to a meaningful relationship with your child in a divorce case, in a situation involving unmarried parents, or in the dissolution of a domestic partnership. Her thorough understanding of the California Family Code and her practical advice on shared parenting time or visitation issues can clarify the issues for you and help you achieve your objectives as a parent.

In divorce cases, the Family Court encourages the parties themselves to negotiate and resolve issues concerning primary physical custody of the child and the noncustodial parent's visitation rights. A mutually acceptable parenting plan defines the specific rights of each parent as to where the child will live, and when the other parent will see the child on an overnight, weekend, or extended basis. The amount of the noncustodial parent's child support obligations will generally be discounted by the percentage of time the child spends overnight at that parent's home - child custody and child support issues are therefore interrelated.

When the parents can't agree on a parenting plan or designation of a primary caregiver, the divorcing spouses will be expected to take their issues to mediation; failing that, a judicial custody conference will try to narrow the basis of dispute and either set the issue for trial or send it back to mediation.

San Jose child custody attorney Merrisa Coleman-Bishop can advise you as to all of the factors that bear upon child custody and parental fitness questions. She also handles cases involving gay, lesbian, or bisexual parents in California domestic partnerships or less formal family arrangements, as well as straight parents who have never married.

The presence of a domestic violence restraining order against you will seriously undermine and often preclude your right to any child custody at all. Because motions for DVROs are too often filed in bad faith as a means of obtaining leverage in child custody disputes, accusations of family violence must always be taken extremely seriously, no matter how ridiculous the allegations might seem. For further information about all aspects of child custody issues and disputes, contact San Jose child custody lawyer Merrisa Coleman-Bishop.

San Jose child custody lawyer Merrisa L. Coleman-Bishop represents clients in disputes concerning legal or physical custody of children in divorce cases and other situations involving shared parenting time, visitation, coparenting and parenting plan negotiations, and mediation. Santa Clara County shared parenting time attorney Merrisa Coleman-Bishop serves Bay Area divorce clients in Marin County, Alameda County, San Jose, Oakland, Gilroy, Hayward, Palo Alto, Union City, Milpitas, Fremont, Campbell, Cupertino, Morgan Hill, Los Gatos, Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Watsonville, Pleasanton, Danville, Dublin, and Saratoga, California.