Iowa Child Custody Agreement

No, and the honest answer has two parts. Agreeing does change the law that applies: Iowa Code 598.41(4) provides that subsection 3, the eleven factor best interest list, shall not apply when parents agree to joint custody, and the joint custody procedure in 598.41(2), including the requirement that a court cite clear and convincing evidence before refusing joint custody, is written for cases where the parents do not agree. That is a real statutory consequence of agreeing and most states have no equivalent. What agreeing does not do is make the arrangement binding. No section of chapter 598 gives an agreed custody arrangement presumptive weight, the court still orders the custody award in the best interest of the child under 598.41(1)(a), and the domestic abuse presumption in 598.41(1)(b) applies notwithstanding that paragraph.

Yes. Parents can settle the arrangement between themselves, and most do, but it has legal force only once the court awards custody and the terms are entered in the decree under 598.17. For anything reached in mediation Iowa says so expressly: 598.7(4)(d) provides that a mediation agreement reached by the parties shall not be enforceable until approved by the court. After entry, the terms are enforceable, including by contempt under 598.23(1) for willful disobedience of a temporary order or final decree.

They are two different awards and Iowa gives them two different names. Legal custody, which the statute also just calls custody, is defined in 598.1(5) as decision making about the child's legal status, medical care, education, extracurricular activities, and religious instruction. Physical care, defined in 598.1(7), is the right and responsibility to maintain a home for the child and provide for the child's routine care. A parent can hold joint legal custody without holding physical care, so a document that says only joint custody has not yet said where the child lives.

Joint physical care under 598.1(4) is the shared residential arrangement, and it is what most people mean when they say joint physical custody, a phrase chapter 598 uses only once, in 598.41(6). It is not automatic and it is not implied by joint legal custody. Section 598.41(5)(a) says the court may award joint physical care upon the request of either parent, so one parent can ask for it even if the other does not, and the same section lets the court require the parents to submit a proposed joint physical care parenting plan, individually or jointly, before it rules. A denial of a joint physical care request shall be accompanied by specific findings of fact and conclusions of law, while an award requires no findings.

Iowa Code 598.41(3) lists eleven, lettered a through k, introduced as the factors the court shall consider with no words making the list illustrative. Two of them are worth knowing by name: paragraph g is whether one or both of the parents agree or are opposed to joint custody, and paragraph j is whether a history of domestic abuse exists. The scope of the list matters more than its length: 598.41(3) applies to what custody arrangement under subsection 2 is in the child's best interest, and 598.41(4) removes it when parents agree to joint custody. The underlying standard does not disappear with it, because 598.1(1) separately defines best interest of the child as something that includes but is not limited to the opportunity for maximum continuous physical and emotional contact possible with both parents.

No. There is no proceeding in chapter 598 in which parents must file a parenting plan, and the only plan provision is conditional. Under 598.41(5)(a), before ruling on a request for joint physical care the court may require the parents to submit, either individually or jointly, a proposed joint physical care parenting plan. If no one requests joint physical care, the question never comes up.

Section 598.41(5)(a) says a proposed joint physical care parenting plan shall address how the parents will make decisions affecting the child, how the parents will provide a home for the child, how the child's time will be divided between the parents, how each parent will facilitate the child's time with the other parent, arrangements in addition to court ordered child support for the child's expenses, and how the parents will resolve major changes or disagreements affecting the child, including changes arising from the child's age and developmental needs. The court may also require any other issues to be addressed. Those contents are prescribed even though the plan itself is never mandatory, so writing to the list costs nothing and prepares you for the request.

Chapter 598 sets no notice period, no mileage permission requirement, and no notice and object procedure for a move. What it has is a modification trigger. Section 598.21D provides that where a parent awarded joint legal custody and physical care, or sole legal custody, relocates the child's residence 150 miles or more from the residence at the time custody was awarded, the court may consider the relocation a substantial change in circumstances. If the court does find a substantial change, it shall modify the custody order to, at a minimum, preserve as nearly as possible the existing relationship between the child and the nonrelocating parent. Because the statute imposes no notice duty, parents who want advance warning of a move should put a notice clause in their own document.

Iowa applies a rebuttable presumption. Section 598.41(1)(b) provides that notwithstanding paragraph a, if the court finds that a history of domestic abuse exists, a rebuttable presumption against the awarding of joint custody exists, and 598.41(2)(c) adds that a finding that is not rebutted shall outweigh consideration of any other factor specified in subsection 3. Under 598.41(3)(j) the court's consideration of that history shall include but is not limited to matters such as the commencement of a chapter 236 action, a protective order, an emergency order, a contempt finding, a peace officer's response to the scene or an arrest following a report, or a conviction for domestic abuse assault. Section 598.41(1)(d) also bars the court from holding a parent's flight from the home to escape abuse against that parent in the custody or visitation award, and 598.41(8) bars ordering custody mediation where a history of domestic abuse is found, with 598.7(1) requiring a waiver from court ordered mediation on a party's application. This is a situation for a lawyer.