
	Lawyers, checked out by Lawyers, for Clients, just like they would for family.


	How It Works:

You post
your case.

Notification
sent
to lawyers
in your area.

Lawyers'
contact
information
sent to you.

You choose
the lawyer
who is
right for you.

Begin HERE with location where the lawyer is needed:

City:

State:

CheckedOutFamilyLawyers.com is the best way to find North Carolina child custody, child support, and child visitation lawyers and family law attorneys, along with North Carolina laws and information.

To find a checked out family lawyer, enter your city and state, above, and click "Find My Lawyer."

Want more information? See How It Works

North Carolina Child Custody, Child Support
and Child Visitation Lawyers

Child Support, Child Custody and Visitation in North Carolina

The laws of North Carolina governing child custody and support are contained in the North Carolina Statutes, available at this link.

To fully understand North Carolina law, it may be necessary to read and interpret statutes with case law and regulatory law. It is also important to know if law is up to date. For these and other reasons, it is always best to consult with a qualified family law attorney to know how the law applies to your particular situation. The following legal summaries are not intended as legal advice and should not be relied on as such. They are intended only as an introduction to the way that the law functions in these areas.

Child Support in North Carolina

Child support is a court-ordered payment by one parent to the custodial parent of a minor child, generally after divorce or separation. Child support in North Carolina is calculated on the basis of the “Income Shares Model,” which ensures that the child receive the financial support in the same proportion as he or she would have received if the child's parent lived together.

In determining the amount of child support, courts take into account the reasonable needs of the child for health, education, and maintenance. Courts also consider the income and assets of the parents, as well as the standard of living to which the parents and children have become accustomed. The child care and homemaker contributions of each party and other facts are also to be taken into consideration while determining the child support amount. Child support is generally required to be paid on a monthly basis.

North Carolina courts determine the actual amount of child support payments by applying guidelines, which are described in detail at this link. Courts may deviate from these guidelines if they find that application of the guidelines would mean that the reasonable needs of the child would not be met.

A court may order the continuation of child support beyond 18 years of age if:

• The child is an emancipated minor;
• The court finds the child is regularly attending high school on a full time basis with a reasonable expectation of completing sufficient credits to graduate from high school while residing on a full-time basis with the recipient of support or at an institution, but in no case after the child reaches 19 years and 6 months of age.

Child Custody in North Carolina

In North Carolina, custody determinations are made by courts based on the best interests of the child. Court may consider sole custody or joint custody and may make a custody determination if the parties are not able to come to an agreement themselves regarding custody. Factors that the court may take into account include the safety of the child, occurrence of domestic violence between the parties, and the safety of either party from domestic violence by the other party. A court in North Carolina will not automatically presume that a mother or father would better promote the interests and welfare of a child. In determining custody, some consideration may be given to a child’s preference if the court deems that a child is old enough to assist the court in this way.

Child custody determinations can be modified by a court if a party can show that there has been some substantial and material change that affects the best interests and welfare of the child.

Child Visitation in North Carolina

Visitation rights (and child custody) can be settled in two ways. Couples can agree to what is called a separation agreement. Or a court can make these decisions. A court can award joint custody to both parents or award primary custody to one parent and visitation to the other. It is rare for a parent to be entirely denied visitation time with a child. In most respects, visitation is determined by the same factors as is child custody. Sometimes visitation can be limited to supervised visitation if a court determines that a parent presents some harm to a child.

Finding your North Carolina Family Lawyer

CheckedOutFamilyLawyers.com provides the best way to find North Carolina child custody lawyers, child support lawyers, and child visitation lawyers and attorneys, along with North Carolina state child custody, child support, and child visitation laws and information.

To find the right family lawyer for you, it's critical to use a method that makes sense. Two common methods make little sense:

Advertisements & Attorney Listing Services …

Is the family lawyer with the biggest ad in the phone book the best family lawyer for you? Not likely. It's easy to see why you might not find the attorney who's right for you through an advertisement.

How about services that merely list attorneys, often on websites? Are they any better? Probably not. Listing services are typically just advertisements. Like the phone book, cash is usually the only criteria for a service to list a family lawyer.

Ask yourself: Do listing services screen attorneys in any way?

Do they check …

• References of other attorneys?
• References of former clients?
• If a family lawyer has a disciplinary history?
• If a family lawyer is properly licensed in North Carolina?
• If family law or family law a significant part of a lawyer's practice?

Listing services typically fail to answer any of these questions. They simply leave it up to you.

Client Referrals …

Client (non-lawyer) referrals usually make little sense. Why? Because clients rarely know enough about the process of practicing law to understand what their family lawyer actually did for them. Or to understand if their family lawyer did a quality job for them compared to other family lawyers.

Could they have achieved a better result with another attorney? Were the results achieved by the family lawyer typical for that lawyer?

It's not that client referrals can't be helpful, but they should be only one of several criteria that a person uses to hire an attorney.

The CheckedOutFamilyLawyers.com Method

CheckedOutFamilyLawyers.com provides the best way to find a quality, prescreened North Carolina family lawyer in your area. What do we mean by prescreened? We mean that we do the hard part. It's free, easy, and confidential.

We have a lawyer who works for us check out family lawyers and family lawyers for you, by doing out the following:

(1). We make sure family law or family law is a substantial part of the lawyer's practice
(2). We make sure the family lawyers are properly licensed in North Carolina
(3). We make sure the family lawyers have no public record of professional discipline
(4). We speak to three former clients of the family lawyer who have had favorable experiences
(5). We speak to three other attorneys who speak highly of the family lawyer and their expertise in family law

There are over 18,000 lawyers who are resident, active attorneys in North Carolina. In order to check out the licensure for any North Carolina lawyer, visit here. In order to check out the disciplinary history for any North Carolina lawyer, visit here.

You can do some of what we do yourself. You can use our How to Check Out Lawyers page to check out a specific North Carolina family lawyer who you are already thinking about using. You can also use the links to check out any other North Carolina lawyer. Alternatively, you can use CheckedOutFamilyLawyers.com to learn more about verified North Carolina family lawyers who we've already checked out.

Our North Carolina family lawyers cover the entire state of North Carolina and include lawyers located in Charlotte, Raleigh-Durham, Chapel Hill, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, Fayetteville, Cary, High Point, Wilmington, Durham, Raleigh, High Point, Gastonia, Salisbury, Mecklenburg County, Cumberland County, Forsyth County, and Guilford County.