Divorce in Maine

Maine now uses the term parental rights and responsibilities instead of custody to describe the relationship of divorced parents to their children. Parental rights and responsibilities include such things as where the child will live, educational issues, religious upbringing, medical care and travel boundaries. The court will base its decision on the best interest of the child with great weight being given to the preference of a teenage child.

If the parents agree to an award of shared parental rights and responsibilities, the court will make that award unless there is substantial evidence that it should not be ordered. If the parents do not have an agreement, the court may order shared or sole parental rights and responsibilities according to the best interest of the child.

An award of shared parental rights and responsibilities may include either an allocation of the child's primary residential care to one parent and rights of parent-child contact (visitation) to the other parent, or a sharing of the child's primary residential care by both parents. The court may not prefer one parent over the other in determining parental rights and responsibilities because of the parent's gender or the child's age or gender.

In making an award of parental rights and responsibilities, the court will consider the following factors:

• Age of the child
• Relationship of the child with the child's parents and any other persons who may significantly affect the child's welfare
• Preference of the child, if old enough to express a meaningful preference
• Duration and adequacy of the child's current living arrangements and the desirability of maintaining continuity
• Stability of any proposed living arrangements for the child
• Motivation of the parties involved and their capacities to give the child love, affection and guidance
• Child's adjustment to the child's present home, school and community
• Capacity of each parent to allow and encourage frequent and continuing contact between the child and the other parent
• Capacity of each parent to cooperate or to learn to cooperate in child care
• Methods for assisting parental cooperation and resolving disputes and each parent's willingness to use those methods
• Effect on the child if one parent has sole authority over the child's upbringing
• Existence of domestic abuse between the parents
• Existence of any history of child abuse by a parent
• Other factors having a reasonable bearing on physical and psychological well-being of the child
• A parent's prior willful misuse of the protection from abuse process in order to gain tactical advantage in a proceeding involving the determination of parental rights and responsibilities of a minor child
• If the child is under one year of age, whether the child is being breast-fed
• Existence of a parent's conviction for a sex offense

Either one or both parents may file a petition with the court to modify or terminate an order for parental rights and responsibilities where there has been a substantial change in circumstances. The relocation, or an intended relocation, of the child to another state or more than 60 miles from the parent who is not relocating as well as domestic violence are each considered a substantial change in circumstances.

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Child Support

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