SPARC Forums

My question is...If joint custody has been agreed upon between the other parent and I, and currently that other parent has full custody, will we need a lawyer to draw up the petition and see a judge to sign off on it? BTW, the kid has been living with me already for the past 3 years..I am his paternal sister. His maternal grandmom has legal custody of him right now but she is 80+ years old. Which is why he's been living with me. Trying to get my brother into school and they're saying I have to have some sort of legal custody to do so. Please Help!

Yes, to make changes to the parenting plan you'll generally need a judge to sign off on the agreement or modification. Although you already appear to have an ECE (established custodial environment) it's always best to formalize the parenting plan through the court.

Quote from: queensha04 on Jul 27, 2015, 07:15:10 AM
My question is...If joint custody has been agreed upon between the other parent and I, and currently that other parent has full custody, will we need a lawyer to draw up the petition and see a judge to sign off on it? BTW, the kid has been living with me already for the past 3 years..I am his paternal sister. His maternal grandmom has legal custody of him right now but she is 80+ years old. Which is why he's been living with me. Trying to get my brother into school and they're saying I have to have some sort of legal custody to do so. Please Help!

my school's system would require that too - - I had to push the court for primary residential custody even though I had joint legal already.

You don't necessarily need a lawyer to draw up the agreement, but the court does have to sign off on it.  When my X and I changed custody of our daughter we drew up the agreement ourselves and filed it with the court.  You can write up the agreement, have each party sign in front of a notary and then file it with the court.


You can do an on-line search for formats and basic agreements - type it up with the stipulations you require....quite simple really.

Giggles is right.  Have it notarized and then file with the court.  You do not have custody until that judge signs off on it.  You do not need an attorney, but look for sample documents or pay an attorney to simply draw up the order for you.  We drew up our own agreement and besides the fact that we are in a battle now over custody...there were so many things I never thought of putting in that would really be beneficial. 

I probably should not let this cat out of the bag. 

Of course these filings with the court are a matter of public record.   If you happen to know of a family with a joint arrangement  then obtain a copy of such documents from the court (authored by attys) and use as a model for your documents.