Ask Me Help Desk - Custodial parent preference

Quote:

Originally Posted by desertmommas

How old does a child have to be to voice their opinion on which parent they want to live with or the amount of visitation there is, and have this opinion taken into consideration when the judge makes his ruling? My best friend has been divorced for 3 years and her daughters absolutely do not want to live with or have visitation with their father. The girls have wrote several letters to their moms attorney and they are getting ready to go to court again. The daughters are 12 and 10. I believe there was some abuse by the father involved in the marriage with both the mom and the girls. Im not sure to what extent or how much was documented. He had supervised visits for the first 3 years and recently was granted unsupervised visits.

At 18 it's the kid's call where he or she wants to live and with whom and that's because the kid is an adult at that age and outside the court's jurisdiction regarding custody orders (there's no "custody" of an adult of course--barring incompetents under a conservatorship).

The court can consider the wishes of the kids at any age but it's the judge's call ultimately. I heard at a family law seminar once that as a general rule the court's give zero consideration to the kid's wishes below age 10 or 11 , some consideration at 12 or 13, and great consideration between 14 and 17, but there's no specific law on this.