When parents separate, the most important legal questions often concern who will make major decisions for the child, where the child will spend time, and how the child will be financially supported. Wisconsin law treats legal custody, physical placement, paternity, and child support as related but distinct issues.
Legal custody and physical placement
I represent parents in disputes involving legal custody and physical placement, including initial orders, temporary orders, contested placement schedules, school and medical decision-making, and cases involving a guardian ad litem. The focus is not on slogans such as “50/50,” but on the child’s best interests and a schedule that can actually function for the family.
Legal custody concerns major decision-making authority. Physical placement concerns when the child is in each parent's care.
In Wisconsin, legal custody is the right and responsibility to make major decisions concerning a child. Major decisions include choices about nonemergency health care, education, religion, obtaining a driver's license, military service, and consent to marry.
When parents have joint legal custody, both ordinarily share those rights and responsibilities, although a court order may assign particular decisions to one parent. Sole legal custody gives one parent that decision-making authority, subject to the terms of the court order.
Physical placement is the right to have the child physically placed with a parent and to make routine daily decisions while the child is with that parent. Those daily decisions must remain consistent with the major decisions made by the person or persons holding legal custody.
Joint legal custody does not automatically require equal physical placement. Parents may share major decision-making even when the child spends more overnights with one parent. Conversely, a relatively equal placement schedule does not necessarily mean the parents have equal authority over every major decision. The controlling document is the court's custody and placement order. The court takesall factors, including Guardian ad Litem input, into consideration when making its final decision.
Paternity
Paternity cases establish the legal relationship between a child and a parent and often require decisions about custody, placement, child support, health insurance, and expenses. I represent parents in both newly filed paternity matters and later disputes arising from existing paternity judgments.
Child support
Child support can involve guideline calculations, shared-placement formulas, variable income, health-insurance costs, arrears, modification, and enforcement. I help clients understand what the current order requires and what information the court will consider when support is established or changed.
Modification and enforcement
Circumstances change. I handle motions to modify custody or placement, requests to enforce placement orders, contempt and enforcement issues, and disputes involving repeated interference with court-ordered placement.
Children are not leverage
Custody and placement litigation can become personal very quickly. I try to keep the legal issue where it belongs: on the child’s welfare, the governing order, the evidence, and what arrangement is sustainable going forward.
Talk with Guth Law
If you need help establishing, modifying, or enforcing a Wisconsin custody, placement, paternity, or child-support order, contact Guth Law to discuss the available options.
This information provides a general overview of Wisconsin law and is not legal advice regarding any particular case.
