ND: Shared Parenting Lobby Incites Opposition From Activists for Parental Responsibility and Non-Violence | Janet Langjahr's Florida Divorce * Child Custody * Domestic Violence Law

Residents of North Dakota are reconsidering the way child custody awards are made there.

On the one hand, there is the Shared Parenting Initiative and the Family Law Reform Initiative.

Both of these groups favor greater custodial rights for fathers, unless the fathers meet the severe test for termination of their parental rights. The latter group also favors reducing the non-custodial parent’s child support obligations and penalties for not meeting them.

On the opposing hand, there is the Concerned Citizens for Children’s Rights Committee.

This group contends that the other two groups emphasize parents’ interests before those of kids by, among other things, reducing non-custodial parents’ legal responsibilities and reducing custodial parents’ buffers against domestic violence.