Frequently Asked Questions on Legal Issues

Questions About Custody, Visitation and Child Support

• Can I get full custody of my children?
• Can I have joint custody of my children?
• What is a normal visitation schedule?
• How can I keep my children from having to see the other parent?
• If I have the children 50% of the time, do I have to pay child support?
• How is child support set?

• Can I get full custody of my children?
• There is no such thing as “full custody” in the State of Missouri.  Missouri recognizes two different types of custody, legal and physical.  Under each of these types of custody you can have either joint or sole.  Generally someone wanting full custody really means that they do not want the other parent to see the children and/or do not want the other parent to have any say in how the children are raised.  In these cases you would actually be asking for sole legal and sole physical custody without visitation.

• Can I have joint custody of my children?
• Courts are required to consider joint legal and joint physical custody first.  Joint physical custody does not mean equal time for each parent.  Joint physical custody means that each parent will have significant and meaningful time with the children.  Joint legal custody means that each parent gets to have input on decisions made for the children. 

• What is a normal visitation schedule?
• The basic parenting plan allows the non-resident parent to have parenting time on alternating weekends, one evening though the week, a portion of the summer and alternating holidays.  However, this does not have to be the schedule put in place for your children.  If your children are not yet in school, then their developmental stage needs to be considered in creating a parenting plan that will be best for their relationship with the non-resident parent.  The best parenting plan is one that can be worked out between the parents taking into consideration the children’s ages, the children’s school and extracurricular activity schedules, the parents’ work schedules and any other factors that affect  your children being able to spend time with each parent.

• How can I keep my children from having to see the other parent?
• In order for one parent to be denied contact with their children, you would have to show that the children’s physical health and emotional well-being would be impaired by allowing contact with the other parent.  This does not mean that all contact will be cut off completely as the court may allow contact as long as it is supervised.  It is very important that children be allowed contact with both parents so allegations against the other parent that would limit this contact should be well-founded and not made for the purpose of hurting the other spouse. (back to top)

• If I have the children 50% of the time, do I have to pay child support?
• Maybe.  The time the children spend with each parent is taken into account in the calculation of child support; however, if one parent makes more money than the other then child support could still be ordered. (back to top)

• How is child support set?
• The Missouri Supreme Court has adopted Rule 88.01 that includes a Form for calculating child support.  It is called a Form 14 and is based on the combined gross income of each parent taking into account the cost of housing, food, transportation, the amount of money the paying parent will need to support him/herself.  The Form 14 chart and instructions can be found here. (back to top)