Illinois Child Custody Attorney for the Allocation of Child Decision-Making Responsibilities

Typically, a JPA is a customized, structured agreement that provides how many aspects of child custody will be handled, including custody, parenting time, decisions concerning the child’s welfare, and how disputes over the JPA will be resolved.  Often, the JPA provides that its terms will be periodically reviewed, allowing for some flexibility as the needs of a child evolve.

The JPA is a critical agreement that will govern nearly all aspects of child custody and decision-making.  Therefore, it is crucial that it be detailed and that both parents understand every aspect of it.  In addition, as an experienced Rockford child custody attorney, I can develop a customized JPA that seeks to meet your objectives and clearly explain its provisions in easy-to-understand terms.

A thorough parenting agreement should provide in detail what decisions will require joint agreement, which decisions will require consultation, and which decisions will simply require notification. How medical, religious, and educational decisions are to be made are almost always specifically addressed.

Such agreements should also have detailed visitation and parenting time schedules, set forth how the parents will communicate with the children when in the other parent’s custody, and define parental conduct rules.  Most JPAs also include a provision that when disputes arise, the parents will attend mediation prior to going to Court.

There are a host of other issues that parents should at least consider including in a JPA, including (but not limited to):

• when the children can start dating/working/driving,
• if joint decisions are required to get tattoos or body piercings, and
• whether the parents can have boyfriends or girlfriends reside overnight when the children are present.