Child Visitation Terms in Georgia Divorce

Child Visitation Terms in Georgia Divorce
Best Interest of the Child
  • The context of which visitation rights are decided
Grandparent Visits
  • Visitation awarded to the grandparents that doesn’t interfere with the parent child relationship
Guardian ad Litem
  • A Guardian ad litem is a third-party evaluator who studies the details of the relationships between the child and each parent, and makes recommendations to the family court.
Legitimation
  • In Georgia, with unmarried parents, the biological father does not have automatic rights to visitation. A legitimation process is the first step to assert a right to gain parental visitation rights.
Parenting Plan
  • This is a required part of a divorce in Georgia. The Parenting Plan is a formal Agreement that delineates core issues such as visitation schedules, custody, certain parental conduct (i.e., no overnight sleepovers by non-relatives),  and aspects of co-parenting.
Pendente Lite
  • Temporary circumstances made for child visitation until a hearing. This is often a short-term solution to allow the non-custodial parent visitation time, and not be alienated to to conflict between the parents.
Unsupervised Visits
  • The non-custodial parent spends time with the child without the other parent being present. This is the customary arrangement for visitation. Effectively this is the drop-off and pick-up custody exchange.
Supervised Visits
  •  The non-custodial parent spends time with the child with the presence of another person. Supervised visitation is typically associated with visitation where the non-custodial parent has substance abuse problems, mental illness, or a less that desireable home environment.
Visitation
  • Visitation refers to in-person time for the non-custodial parent has rights to see the child(ren). In Georgia, there are typical visitation schedules, however; the parents may deviate from the typical arrangement. Parents have the right to informally accommodate each other for visitation outside of the set schedule. This is common when a parent has to travel, has an extended illness, or has distant relatives visiting.
Visitation Order
  • A visitation order may be issued when the parents fail to create and agree upon a visitation schedule. Common issues resolved are holiday visitation, school break visitation, and religious holidays.
Jimmy Duncan
James Hobson is a digital marketing professional with 25 years of experience in web development, search engine optimization, local search and online advertising. James has over 40 years of sales and marketing experience ranging from entrepreneur to senior management for start-ups, SMB, and Fortune 100 companies. James has specific business expertise with advertising agency, law firm, service trade, manufacturing, construction and industrial sectors. He has been a sales and marketing speaker for events, and is a frequent contributing author for law and business blogs under the nom de plume Jimmy Duncan.