Child custody in New Hampshire falls under the legal term “parental rights and responsibilities.” These rights and responsibilities determine where a child spends time with each parent and how parents make important decisions concerning the child.
New Hampshire law encourages both parents to have stable and meaningful involvement in their child’s life and, when consistent with the child’s best interests, encourages approximately equal parenting time. Parents may agree on these arrangements through a parenting plan. When they cannot agree, the court determines parental rights and responsibilities based on the child’s best interests.
Parents may develop a parenting plan addressing matters such as the parenting schedule, decision-making responsibilities, transportation, holidays, vacations, and other issues affecting the child. If the parents cannot reach an agreement, the court determines these issues based on the child’s best interests.
Prioritizing the Child’s Best Interests
The child’s best interests are the controlling consideration when New Hampshire courts determine parental rights and responsibilities.
Parents may have strongly differing views about the parenting arrangement that will best serve their child, particularly when disagreements from the relationship continue after separation. The court’s focus, however, is not on either parent’s preferred outcome but on the parenting arrangement that best promotes the child’s welfare, stability, and safety.
An experienced New Hampshire child custody lawyer can help identify the facts and evidence most relevant to the court’s best-interests analysis, present a proposed parenting plan clearly and effectively, and advocate for an arrangement that protects the parent-child relationship while serving the child’s needs.
How Child Custody Works in New Hampshire
New Hampshire courts determine parental rights and responsibilities under RSA 461-A based on the best interests of the child.
Parental rights and responsibilities may be established as part of a divorce or in a separate parenting case when the child’s parents are not married. A New Hampshire divorce lawyer can address parenting issues together with the other matters that must be resolved in the divorce. In either situation, parents may reach an agreement and submit a parenting plan for court approval. When they cannot agree, the court determines the parenting arrangement under New Hampshire’s best-interests standard.
New Hampshire law encourages both parents to have stable and meaningful involvement in their child’s life and, when consistent with the child’s best interests, encourages approximately equal parenting time. This does not mean that every case results in an equal parenting schedule. The court must consider the circumstances of each family, including any concerns involving domestic abuse, neglect, or other conditions affecting the child’s safety and well-being.
When parental rights and responsibilities are addressed as part of a divorce, the case may also involve related financial issues such as child support and alimony.
How Courts Determine Custody in New Hampshire
New Hampshire courts determine parental rights and responsibilities by considering the factors in RSA 461-A:6 and deciding what arrangement is in the child’s best interests.
The court considers the circumstances of each family rather than relying on any single factor. Relevant considerations include:
- Parent-child relationships: The child’s relationship with each parent and each parent’s ability to provide nurture, love, affection, and guidance.
- Ability to meet the child’s needs: Each parent’s ability to provide adequate food, clothing, shelter, medical care, a safe environment, and meet the child’s developmental needs.
- Stability and adjustment: The quality of the child’s adjustment to school and community and the potential effect of changing the child’s circumstances.
- Support for the other parent’s relationship: Each parent’s willingness and ability to foster a positive relationship and continuing contact between the child and the other parent, when that contact can occur safely.
- Parental communication and cooperation: The parents’ ability to communicate, cooperate, and make decisions concerning their child.
- Other important relationships: The child’s relationship with other people who may significantly affect the child.
- Abuse and safety concerns: Evidence of domestic or child abuse and its impact on the child and the child’s relationship with an abusive parent.
- Other relevant circumstances: The court may consider additional factors it determines are relevant to the child’s best interests.
Substance abuse can also have a significant impact on a parenting case when it affects a parent’s ability to care for the child, creates safety concerns, or otherwise bears on the statutory best-interest factors. Learn more about how New Hampshire courts handle substance abuse in child custody cases.
A Child’s Preference in a New Hampshire Custody Case
New Hampshire does not establish a specific age at which a child can choose which parent to live with. Instead, if the court finds by clear and convincing evidence that a child is sufficiently mature to make a sound judgment, it may give substantial weight to the child’s preference.
Even then, the child’s preference does not control the outcome. The court must consider the preference along with the other best-interest factors and may examine whether undesirable or improper influences affect the child’s views. Learn more about when a child’s preference may be considered in a New Hampshire custody case.
Modifying a Custody Order in New Hampshire
New Hampshire courts may modify an existing parenting order when the circumstances satisfy one of the grounds for modification under RSA 461-A:11 and comply with all applicable legal requirements.
A parenting plan may change when both parents agree to the change. When parents do not agree, the parent requesting modification generally bears the burden of establishing a statutory basis for changing the existing order. Depending on the circumstances, modification may be appropriate when:
- The child’s current environment is harmful: The court finds by clear and convincing evidence that the child’s present environment is detrimental to the child’s physical, mental, or emotional health and that the benefits of changing the order outweigh the harm caused by the change.
- A parent repeatedly interferes with the other parent’s parenting responsibilities: Repeated, intentional, and unwarranted interference with the other parent’s residential responsibilities can provide grounds for modification.
- A substantially equal parenting arrangement is not working: When the parents have substantially equal periods of residential responsibility and the existing allocation is not working, the court may modify the arrangement based on the child’s best interests.
- Other statutory grounds apply: New Hampshire law provides additional circumstances in which a court may modify a parenting schedule or allocation of parental rights and responsibilities, depending on the particular facts of the case.
Not every change in a parent’s life is enough to reopen an existing parenting order. The applicable standard depends on the part of the parenting plan a parent wants to change and the reason for the requested modification. Parents considering a change should review both the existing order and the specific requirements of RSA 461-A:11.
Protect Your Parental Rights with Experienced Legal Guidance
An experienced New Hampshire child custody lawyer can help you protect your parental rights while pursuing an arrangement that serves your child’s best interests.
Whether you are establishing parental rights and responsibilities for the first time, resolving a parenting dispute during a divorce, or seeking to modify an existing parenting order, the outcome can have a lasting effect on your relationship with your child. Effective representation requires understanding not only the law but also how to present the facts and evidence that matter to the court.
Turco Legal’s family law attorneys understand how New Hampshire courts apply the best-interests standard and can help you develop a parenting plan, prepare for contested proceedings, and advocate for an outcome that protects your relationship with your child.
Contact Turco Legal today at 603-932-5032 or schedule a free 30-minute consultation with a New Hampshire family law attorney.
Frequently Asked Questions About Child Custody in New Hampshire
Is New Hampshire a 50/50 custody state?
No, New Hampshire does not require parents to have a 50/50 parenting schedule. State law encourages approximately equal parenting time when it is in the child’s best interests, but courts determine the appropriate parenting arrangement based on the circumstances of each family.
Can my child decide which parent to live with?
No, New Hampshire does not establish a specific age at which a child can decide which parent to live with. If the court finds by clear and convincing evidence that a child is sufficiently mature to make a sound judgment, it may give substantial weight to the child’s preference while also considering the other best-interest factors and any improper influences on the child.
How do I get help with child custody?
A New Hampshire family law attorney can help you establish, enforce, or modify parental rights and responsibilities. An attorney can evaluate your circumstances, explain how the best-interest factors apply, help develop a parenting plan, and represent you in negotiations or court proceedings.
What is a parenting plan in New Hampshire?
A parenting plan is a written plan that establishes each parent’s rights and responsibilities concerning their child. It can address the parenting schedule, decision-making responsibilities, holidays and vacations, transportation, communication, and other practical issues governing how the parents will care for their child.
About the Author: Damian Turco is the Founder and Managing Partner of Turco Legal and has practiced divorce and family law since 2008.
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This article is for informational purposes only and should not be interpreted as legal advice. Articles on our blog are written at a historical point in time and the information presented accurately reflects the law at the time of the article’s writing. If you’d like to better understand how the law applies to your case, schedule an attorney consultation by calling any of our offices or by clicking the Schedule a Consultation link on this page.