Parental Rights and Responsibilities in New Hampshire
With Law Offices in Manchester, NH
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Parental Rights and Responsibilities in New Hampshire
With Law Offices in Manchester, NH
Do You Need Legal Help?
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Parental Rights and Responsibilities in New Hampshire
New Hampshire Child Custody Lawyers
For many parents, there is no more important issue than how their divorce or break-up will affect their children. Children, regardless of their age, often struggle with their parents’ separation. Decisions regarding the children can be highly emotional and complicated, especially in the context of a high- conflict divorce.
New Hampshire enacted the Parental Rights and Responsibility Statute, RSA 461-A, in 2005. The statue, as its name suggests, addresses parental rights and responsibilities for children of divorcing parents as well as children whose parents were never married.
Although you may be familiar with the terms custody or visitation, in New Hampshire, those concepts have been replaced with the new language of parental rights and responsibilities set forth in RSA 461-A. The terms decision-making, residential responsibility, and parenting schedule are now used in New Hampshire to define a parent’s role and how time with their children is allocated between them.
RSA 461-A:20 references the specific changes in language and provides:
Any provision of law that refers to the “custody” of minor children shall mean the allocation of parental rights and responsibilities as provided in this chapter. Any provision of law which refers to a “custodial parent” shall mean a parent with 50 percent or more of the residential responsibility and any reference to a non-custodial parent shall mean a parent with less than 50 percent of the residential responsibility.
What are Parental Rights and Responsibilities?
The term “parental rights and responsibilities” means all rights and responsibilities parents have concerning their child. RSA-461-A:1 (IV).
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Areas We Serve in New Hampshire
What is Decision- Making Responsibility?
In New Hampshire, Decision-making responsibility refers to a parent’s responsibility to make decision for the children. It may refer to decisions on all issues or on specified issues RSA-461-A:1 (IV). Decision-making responsibility can be joint and awarded equally to both parents; or, decision-making responsibility can be sole and awarded to one parent.
In New Hampshire, the law presumes that joint-decision making is in the best interest if the children. Joint decision-making means that parents are equally able to make decisions for their children on day-to-day issues and should decide “jointly” on issues that are more significant such as a selection of child’s schooling, religious activities and non-routine medical treatment. Each party is able to participate in child’s schooling, recreational activities and has the right to obtain all school and medical records for the child.
The Court has the right to award sole-decision making responsibility, meaning one-parent makes the decisions for the child, if the court believes it is in the child’s best interest to do so. Situations in which sole-decision making responsibility can be awarded include cases where: one parent committed physical abuse against the other parent, one parent is abusing drugs or alcohol, one parent is incarcerated. Other cases in which sole-decision making may be awarded include cases in which a child has special medical or developmental needs, or because the parents are in a high-conflict situation where the children inevitably end-up in the middle of their parents’ dispute.
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