Child Custody Quebec
Are you legally involved in a child custody case in Quebec?
You want to educate yourself on how the Quebec courts handle child custody orders?
Don’t go any further!
You are at the right place…
We will present to you the different types of custody orders possible in Quebec, what factors the court will consider in rendering a child custody judgment and the impact on your parental authority. After reading this article, you will know precisely how child custody his handled in the Province of Quebec.
In this article, we will look at:
- Best interest of the minor child
- What is considered to be in the best interest of the child?
- Child custody orders in Quebec
- Child’s opinion regarding custody arrangements
- Parental authority
- Every child custody case is unique
- About our family law firm
Let’s dive right in!
1- Best interest of the minor child
When the court is required to make a decision about child custody, one important guiding principle is the best interest of the minor child.
This means that the court will weigh the pros and cons of different types of custody arrangements to assess the overall impact on the parents but also on the child.
The judge must be satisfied that the decision rendered will be, to the extent possible, suitable for the child and will help promote the well-being and best interest of the child.
2- What is considered to be in the best interest of the child?
There is no cookie-cutter answer to this question. Every family situation is different, the parents are in different circumstances and the children have different needs.
By looking at the general tendencies and teachings offered by the courts over time, we can extract some recurring factors considered by the court when assessing the best interest of the child.
The courts in Quebec will consider the following factors, among others, in deciding what’s best for your child:
- Child’s medical condition and needs
- Both parents’ physical and financial situation
- The relationship between both parents
- The relationship between each parent and the child
- The past behaviours and actions of the parents in dealing with the child
- Each parent’s lifestyle and its possible impact on the child
- Each parent’s sense of responsibility and overall stability
- The reasonableness of the parenting arrangement proposed by each parent
- Child’s age and level of maturity
- Ability to provide a custody plan offering the most stability for the child
The judge may consider other factors as well but the above list gives you a good idea. The driving force here is what’s better for the children and not for an individual parent.
3- Child custody orders in Quebec
In Quebec, the court can render different types of child custody orders, they are:
- Joint custody or shared custody
- Sole custody with access rights
- Sole custody without access rights
A- Joint custody or shared custody orders
A joint custody or shared custody order is one where each parent will exercise at least 40% and no more than 60% of parenting time with the child.
For instance, if the mother has custody for 219 days in a year, then she has 60% of the parenting time (219 days of custody / 365 days in a year). The father will therefore have 146 days in a year giving him 40%.
Since each parent has a custody percentage between 40% and 60%, their custody arrangement will fall under the qualification of joint custody or shared custody.
B- Sole custody with access rights
Your custody order can also be qualified as a sole custody arrangement with access rights. In this type of custody arrangement, one parent will primarily have custody over the child and the other one will be able to have the right to have the child for more limited time.
In this arrangement, one parent will have custody for over 60% of the time but below 80% and the other between 20% and 40% of the time.
So using an example, if the mother has the child 292 days in a year, that will give her 80% custody time. The father will therefore have 73 days giving him 20% custody time. Since the mother is within 60% to 80% and the father is within 20% and 40%, they are in a sole custody arrangement with access rights for the father.
When referring to access rights, we can refer to it as custody time, visitation rights or prolonged visitation rights in our example above.
C- Sole custody without access rights or exclusive custody
When one parent has the child 100% of the, we can refer to this as having an exclusive custody.
In most cases however, one parent will have sole custody and the other can have very limited access rights, life a few hours a week, or none at all. Hence, sole custody without access rights.
In this type of custody arrangement, one parent in a range of over 80% to 100% of the parenting time with the child and the other parent between 0% and 20%.
D- Is there a custody arrangement that the court prefers?
The court does not prefer one custody arrangement over the other, it’s a question of what is good for the children and what will help the parents manage. Each family situation is different and the family judge will be keen to understand the nuances so as to make the best possible decision.
The decisions may not be perfect, but a judge will have to use his or her experience and proper understanding of the case to render a judgment that could help fix what may be broken.
4- Child’s opinion regarding custody arrangements
If your child is old enough and mature enough to formulate an opinion and share his or her views, the judge may be interested in hearing what the child may have to say about a particular custody order.
In these cases, the court will appoint a lawyer to your minor child so the lawyer can interview your child outside of the court in a neutral place and get your child’s views. The lawyer to the child will typically be paid by the government as your child will be eligible for legal aid.
Once the lawyer to the minor child asks the child about his or her views on the parenting plan or custody arrangement, the lawyer will share your child’s views with the judge who will then take it into account.
The judge is not bound by the views of the child nor are the parents. The child’s view will be a factor among other factors for the court to consider in rendering a custody judgment.
5- Parental authority
Parental authority is the rights and obligations of each parent in raising their child, making the best decisions possible in the upbringing of the child and important decisions related to their health, medical treatment, education, religious teachings and overall well-being.
Regardless of the nature of child custody order that you may be subject to, you will always be vested with the rights and obligations resulting from the concept of parental authority.
What this means is that even if you only have limited access rights to see your child while the other parent has sole custody, your views are important to be considered if your child is ill and needs a particular medical treatment, or your child’s education path and plans.
When you have custody over a child, you are authorized to make the day-to-day decisions concerning the child without the permission of the other.
When we are dealing with parental authority issues, these are fundamental decisions that could profoundly impact your child and overall progress. For this reason, both parents remain responsible to make the best decisions for their child.
6- Every child custody case is unique
Child custody orders in Quebec are regulated by either the Divorce Act or the Civil Code of Quebec depending on the nature of your case.
Considering that every family has a unique set of circumstances, different realities to deal with and different needs, there is no cookie-cutter approach in dealing with custody.
If, as parents, you are unable to reach a mutually satisfactory solution regarding your parenting time and custody arrangements, then the courts are there to step in.
The court will need to consider the unique circumstances of your case to decide what’s the best possible child custody order they can render.
They will look at the best interest of your child to guide their decision in rendering either a joint custody order, sole custody with access rights or sole custody without access rights.
There is no preferred child custody order.
We hope that this article has helped you understand high-level legal concepts behind child custody orders in Quebec.
7- About our family law firm
Our family law firm is located in the City of Montreal and well-positioned to provide you with any child custody legal services, advice and consultation regarding child custody orders in Quebec.
We are not like the other family law firms giving you a scripted message suggesting that we can do everything under the sun and more.
We are the real deal, no marketing talk track, not hidden agendas…
With our custody lawyers, you will get what we say you will get and that’s a high level quality of legal services consistent with our brand’s mission.
Our mission statement is simple: give you the best family law legal advice concerning your child custody orders in Quebec at the best and most affordable price. Period.
If you need to speak to a lawyer, our experienced child custody lawyer is sitting on the bench to help you.
Don’t hesitate to reach out, it will be our pleasure to serve.
We love what we do and we will passionately execute our mandate for you, that’s our commitment.
We hope you enjoyed this article!
Best of luck!
