Understanding Changes in Child Custody Law
Hey, my name is Carl Birkhead. I’m a Tulsa family law attorney with Wirth Law Office in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I’ve been practicing family law for a little over eight years now. I want to help you make law easy by talking about some of the changes that have been happening in family law, specifically regarding child custody and visitation, here in 2026.
These changes also apply to the standards for your eligibility or your fitness to be a guardian of a child. Because what I’m going to be talking about today is the changes that have been implemented in Title 43, Section 1112.5. Specifically, the changes are in subparagraphs C and D.
New Standards for Determining Fitness
See, here’s the thing, it used to be when you were determining the fitness to be a custodial parent or fitness to have visitation or even fitness to be the guardian of a child, the standard was, let’s look at what’s in the best interest of the child. I’m sure you’d agree with me that’s a very broad standard.
There was a lot of discretion that the courts had in determining what the best interest, and there are a lot of factors that go into play in that. I’m not going to go into all those factors today, but I am going to tell you, there was never any specific statutory standard for an unfit parent.
Implementing Specific Measures
This meant there were never any measures put in place; there was never any regulatory provision to say, Hey, if these things happen, this parent is unfit and therefore has to correct something. It was always just best interest, with no specific definitions of what might be against the child’s best interest.
That’s what this statute is going to do today, and that’s what this statute has done, this change in the law this year, and today I’m going to talk with you about it. Specifically, I’m going to be going through how these changes affect child custody proceedings, because it’s going to flip the script.
The Impact of New Statutory Requirements
It’s going to create a rebuttable presumption of unfitness, it’s going to create statutory requirements, and require express findings of fact that the courts have to find to determine a parent unfit for reasons of abuse, substance abuse, neglect, and things like that.
The other thing that this statute is doing is it’s actually creating a way to track and standardize non-physical abuse. We’re talking about psychological abuse, power, and control. These types of situations that are so hard to quantify are now becoming a relevant factor in determining whether a person is abusive and therefore unfit.
Schedule Your Low-Cost Initial Strategy Session
I’m going to be breaking down these changes in more detail, but I just want to give you an overview right now. I’m Tulsa child custody attorney Carl Birkhead. I want to help you make law easy and guide you through these changes in the custody statutes.
If you have questions or need guidance navigating these new standards, schedule a low-cost initial strategy session with me. Call 918-879-1681 today, and let’s work together to protect your family’s future.
