Establish or Modify Child Custody and Visitation
The Self-Help Center offers clinics that provide assistance in filling out the forms to ask the court for an original custody or visitation order, or to change your current order. Please check the clinic calendar for the “Request for Orders: Custody and Visitation” clinic.
How do I get a custody order?
You may ask for custody and visitation orders in a Petition for Dissolution, a Petition for Custody and Support, a Petition to Determine Parental Relationship and during the process of requesting a Domestic Violence Restraining Order (if you share the children in common with the restrained party).
The Petition to Determine Parental Relationship is used when there is no legal father established for a child.
A Petition for Custody and Support is filed when there is a legal father but no orders anywhere for custody or visitation.
Some of the ways that a person who is not the mother can be established as the legal parent is being married to the mother when the child is born, signing a Declaration of Parentage at the hospital when the child is born, or having a child support judgment entered establishing legal parentage.
If you already have an open case but do not have orders, you may wish to contact the Self-Help center for assistance and referral to the proper clinic
The Self-Help Center offers clinics that provide assistance in filling out forms requesting that the court open a case to establish an original custody or visitation order. Please check the clinic calendar for the “Petition for Custody and Support & Beginning Parentage” clinic.
How do I change a custody order?
To change an existing custody and visitation order you must file a “Request for Order” FL-300 with the applicable attachments, specifically telling the court what you want to change. A hearing will be set and the other party will need to be served with your request.
The Self Help Center offers clinics that provide help in filling out the forms requesting the court change your current order. Please check the clinic calendar for the “Request for Orders: Custody and Visitation” clinic.
How Do I Get Emergency Custody Orders?
If you feel that your child is in imminent danger, you can request temporary emergency court orders. The links provided below are to instructions for completing the forms. The blank forms can be found on the California Courts website. To figure out which papers you need to complete, see below:
Is the other parent perpetrating domestic violence such that you fear for your safety or for the safety of your child?
- If yes, you can submit a Request for Domestic Violence Restraining Order with child custody and visitation orders at the filing window. You will need to call the court to check on the status of your request.
- If no, there is no domestic violence but there is still a child custody emergency:
- Do you already have a child custody case open?
- If yes, you can submit a Request for Child Custody and Visitation Orders with Temporary Emergency Orders at the filing window. You will need to call the court to check on the status of your request.
- If no, is the other parent listed on the child's birth certificate, or is there a child support order that has determined parentage?
- If yes, you will need to open a case with a Petition for Custody along with your Request for Child Custody and Visitation Orders.
- If no, you will need to open a case by filing a Petition to Determine Parental Relationship along with your Request for Child Custody and Visitation Orders.
- Do you already have a child custody case open?
After your hearing
After the hearing, the orders that the court makes need to be put into a formal order.
The Self Help Center offers a clinic that can help. Please check the clinic calendar for the “Findings and Order After Hearing” clinic.
Often litigants will need their orders sooner than the next clinic. The Self-Help Center has created an instruction packet to provide assistance with getting those forms completed if you cannot wait for a clinic.