Joint Legal Custody - Religious Services and Parenting Time

Where parents share legal custody they share the decision-making of all things related to the education and medical needs of a child, as well as the religious upbringing of the child. What encompasses "religious upbringing" is difficult to define. Even where parents are the same religion, what one parent considers a necessary religious practice, the other parent may not.

If parents who share legal custody agree on the religion of a child, does it follow that each parent must take the child to religious services during their respective parenting time? If not, can the parent that wants the child to attend services mandate that the other parent allow him/her to take the child to attend religious services during other parent's parenting time?

In a recent case the Indiana Court of Appeals stated that whether the child must attend services is the prerogative of the parent exercising parenting time. In other words, no, the parent is not required to take the child to services, or allow the other parent to interrupt his/her parenting time to take the child to services.

Indiana Parenting Time Guideline - Winter Holiday Parenting Time 2009 & 2010

Holiday parenting time is often a source of confusion. The time a parent has the child alternates each year and is affected by when the school break starts and ends. This posting will provide the specific language of the Guidelines and also an interpretation of what the Guidelines provide this year if your child's winter break is from December 18th - January 4th.

Here is what the Indiana Parenting Time Guidelines say about the winter holidays:

HOLIDAY PARENTING TIME SCHEDULE
B. Christmas Vacation.
One-half of the period which will begin at 8:00 P.M. on the evening the child is released from school and continues to December 30 at 7:00 P.M. If the parents cannot agree on the division of this period, the custodial parent shall have the first half in even-numbered years. In those years when Christmas does not fall in a parent’s week, that parent shall have the child from Noon to 9:00 P.M. on Christmas Day. The winter vacation period shall apply to pre-school children and shall be determined by the vacation period of the public grade school in the custodial parent’s school district.
C. Holidays.
In years ending with an even number, the non-custodial parent shall exercise the following parenting time:
[1] New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. (The date of the new year will determine odd or even year). From December 30th at 7:00 P.M to 7:00 P.M. of the evening before school resumes.
[4] Thanksgiving. From 6:00 P.M. on Wednesday until 7:00 P.M. on Sunday.

After reviewing the Guidelines, if your child gets out of school on December 18th and goes back on January 4th, one interpretation of the Guidelines for the winter holidays in 2010 is as follows:
Thanksgiving Break - with custodial parent in 2009.
Winter School Break - with noncustodial parent from December 18th at 8 p.m. until December 24, then the custodial parent would have the child from December 24th until December 30th at 7 p.m., whereupon the noncustodial parent would have the child from December 30th at 7 p.m. through January 3rd at 7 p.m. However, the noncustodial parent would also have the child from noon until 9 p.m. on December 25th.

In sum, the custodial parent does not have the child as much over the winter break this year; however, the custodial parent gets the Thanksgiving break, Christmas eve as well as Christmas morning.

Retirement and Divorce - Are Paid Health Insurance Premiums An Asset?

Retirement assets are often an issue in the property division aspect of a divorce case. For the purposes of divorce, Indiana defines “property” as:

[A]ll the assets of either party or both parties, including:
(1) a present right to withdraw pension or retirement benefits;
(2) the right to receive pension or retirement benefits that are not forfeited upon termination of employment or that are vested (as defined in Section 411 of the Internal Revenue Code) but that are payable after the dissolution of marriage; and
(3) the right to receive disposable retired or retainer pay (as defined in 10 U.S.C. 1408(a)) acquired during the marriage that is or may be payable after the dissolution of marriage.See Ind. Code § 31-9-2-98(b).

In a recent Court of Appeals case, the question was whether a benefit that caused Husband's post-retirement health insurance premiums to be paid is an asset of the marriage and subject to division by the court. The answer is, no, but the interesting part of the question is why the court found this way. It is important to know the benefit was paid directly to the insurance provider, not to the Husband. The COA explained that since the benefit was not payable to the Husband and as he could not elect to receive cash or some other benefit in lieu of the premium payments, the benefit was non-elective and not subject to division.

Had the Husband received the premium payment directly, as a payment for him to pay his health insurance premiums, then the court would likely have held otherwise.

However, a concurring opinion noted that the benefit could be properly considered as future income and be treated in same manner as evidence of future earning ability. In this regard, while the benefit could not be considered to be an asset of the marriage, it could be considered in the determination of how the assets should be split.