The highest priority in your divorce is to ensure the safety and well-being of your children. At Oriol Law Firm in Covington, Louisiana, we take a child-centered approach to child custody and support proceedings, ensuring that your children's best interests are served well by any agreements or court orders.

Protecting Your Children and Parental Rights

In Louisiana, courts presume that the best interests of the child will be served through joint custody, unless there are special circumstances. In many custody agreements, one parent is designated the domiciliary parent or the parent with which the child primarily lives. The other parent is designated the non-domiciliary parent and is awarded periods of time in which to exercise physical custody.

Whether you seek to be the domiciliary parent or simply want to ensure that you can take part in raising your child, we will defend your parental rights throughout your child custody proceedings.

Child custody and child support proceedings can be highly emotional for parents and children alike. It helps to have a lawyer who can take a step back and view the situation objectively. In most cases, it is in everyone's best interests to come up with a workable solution rather than litigate. The judge does not know your life the way you know it.

Louisiana Child Support Guidelines

In Louisiana, child support payments are determined by a formula based on the time spent with children, the number of children and the income of both parents. While the calculation is simple, determining income can be complex, especially for people who are self-employed or own a closely held business. Just because something can be deducted for income tax purposes doesn't mean it can be deducted for calculating income for child support.

David Oriol has business experience and expertise. He examines tax returns and profit and loss statements to make sure that child support payments are based on the actual income of both parents, not simply what a parent might claim. An accurate child support calculations considers issues such as health insurance costs, day care services, college tuition and which parent can claim the dependent tax exemption.

Serving out-of-state clients: Oriol Law Firm represents clients from other states who have child custody and support issues in St. Tammany Parish and surrounding areas. We use Zoom, e-mail, and the phone conferences to keep you informed regardless of where you live.

For More Information About Child Custody

David Oriol will conduct an honest assessment of your case and advise you on what to do next. To schedule a consultation with an experienced family law attorney, call us at (985) 845-2227 or contact us online.