Custody
Custody and parenting time
This is the part that keeps people awake. It helps to know that Oregon courts do not start from a presumption that one parent is better, and that the question a judge is answering is narrower than most parents fear.
Custody and parenting time are two different things
Custody, in Oregon, means decision-making authority: school, non-emergency medical care, religion. Parenting time means the actual schedule, the nights and the handoffs. A parent can have very substantial parenting time without having joint legal custody, and the reverse is true too.
Oregon courts will not order joint legal custody unless both parents agree to it. That surprises people. It means that if you and the other parent cannot make decisions together, a judge has to pick one of you, and the parenting schedule is decided separately.
What the court is actually weighing
The statute lists factors: the emotional ties between the child and each parent, each parent's interest in and attitude toward the child, the desirability of continuing an existing relationship, the willingness of each parent to support the child's relationship with the other, and any history of abuse.
That fourth one matters more than people expect. A parent who documents every failing of the other parent often reads, to a judge, as the parent least likely to support the relationship. We will tell you when a strategy is going to backfire.
Changing an order that no longer fits
Children get older. Jobs change. Someone wants to move to Bend. Oregon allows modification when there has been a substantial change in circumstances, and the bar is real but not impossible.
If the other parent is simply not following the current order, that is a different filing, and it is often faster than people assume.
Questions people ask about custody
Not directly. There is no age in Oregon at which a child gets to decide. A judge may consider the preference of an older teenager as one factor among many, but no child is put in the position of choosing a parent.
Write it down, with dates. One late handoff is life. A pattern over three months is a filing, and courts do take repeated interference seriously.
Almost never, and trying to usually hurts you. Most custody cases are decided between two adequate parents on the question of which arrangement serves the child, not which adult is worse.
More of them on the common questions page, including cost, timing and what happens on the first call.
The other three
Divorce and separation
Ending a marriage without ending up as strangers who hate each other. Most of our divorces settle at a table, not in a courtroom.
Adoption
The one part of family law that ends in a celebration. Stepparent, agency, foster and second-parent adoptions across Oregon.
Estate planning and guardianship
Wills, trusts, powers of attorney and guardian nominations. An afternoon of paperwork that spares your family a year of guessing.
Start with a conversation, not a commitment
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