Strengthening Protections: Key Family Law Updates Explained
Hi, my name is Carl Birkhead. I’m a Tulsa criminal defense attorney and a Tulsa family attorney in Oklahoma, with Wirth Law Office. I’ve been doing family and criminal law for about eight years now, and I want to talk to you today about the changes in family law that have been happening over the last year, specifically about the changes to Title 12, Title 43, Section 112.5.
This is the section that deals with the fitness or unfitness of a parent to have custody, visitation, or guardianship of a child. What I’m talking about today is how this statute has changed to put some protections in place for cases where there’s abuse and neglect, or abuse and harassment, things like that.
The Shift in Burden for Custody Cases
So what this has done is that it has shifted the burden in these cases, because it used to be that the burden was just, it was a best interest analysis. So what’s in the best interest of the child? And it was affirmatively on, the burden was affirmatively on the parent trying to prove the abuse to even, you know, get that in the door or get past the relevancy standard and get it in front of a judge.
And it didn’t matter if it was physical abuse, if it was coercive control, if it was stalking, harassment, substance abuse, if it was anything like that. It had to be affirmatively proven and then just a Hail Mary hope that it was enough to overcome the rest of the entirety of the case. That’s no longer the case here now.
Proving Fitness as a Custodial Parent
Once you can show this type of abusive, coercive, controlling behavior, this type of toxic, manipulative behavior for coercive control, stalking, harassment, abuse, neglect, substance abuse, then it shifts the burden to the abusive parent, to the person that’s perpetrating the bad acts.
That’s never happened before, but now it’s creating a rebuttable presumption that this parent is unfit to be around the children in an unsupervised or custodial way. So what it does now is the parent then has to overcome or rebut the presumption that they’re unfit.
They have to show that maybe they had a bad day and they went off, but they’re not actually a typically angry or abusive person. They might have to show that they’re in counseling for their anger. They might have to show that they’re taking parenting classes. They’ll have to show something to the court to let the court feel at ease or give the court peace of mind about letting them have greater access to the children, whether it be unsupervised visitation or expanding custody.
Implications for Families in Custody Disputes
This is going to be a really huge and really important change in a lot of people’s custody cases because a lot of times this type of behavior is absolutely crucial to what is ultimately in the best interest of the child. So if you have a case like this and you think you’ve got evidence like this that you want to present, call me.
Let’s sit down. Let’s talk about it. Let’s figure out what we can do to build the best case possible for you. My name is Carl Birkhead. I’m with Wirth Law Office, and I want to help you make law easy.
Book a Low-Cost Initial Strategy Session Today
If you believe these changes could impact your custody case, don’t hesitate to reach out. Schedule a low-cost initial strategy session with me to explore your options and devise a solid plan forward. Call me at 918-879-1681. Let’s work together to ensure the best outcome for you and your family.
