Custody & Visitation

Custody & Visitation Issues

The Lafayette County Child Support Agency cannot enforce or change custody and/or placement orders; if the need for court involvement arises, you may contact a private attorney. If a private attorney is not feasible, you may contact the Lafayette County Family Court Commissioner, Attorney Ralph E. Farrell. Be advised Commissioner Farrell does not represent either party involved in the case and can only provide broad instructional information in regard to rules of procedure.

If you feel the custody and/or placement of the court order merits a change and both parties are not in agreement, you may file a Request for Court Ordered Mediation with the Lafayette County Clerk of Courts Office.

Family Court Commissioner Contact Information:

Attorney Ralph E. Farrell
(608) 214-3418
PO Box 94
20560 STH 78
Blanchardville, WI  53516

The Lafayette County Child Support Agency does not and will not enforce visitation but will place the guidelines in the orders as a starting point for the parties.

Custody & Visitation Terms and Definitions

• Custody
  "Custody" includes, but is not limited to, making decisions regarding consent to marry, consent to enter military service, consent to obtain a motor vehicle operator's license, authorization for non-emergency health care and choice of school and religion.
• Joint Custody
  "Joint Custody" means the condition under which both parties share legal custody and neither party's custody rights are superior, except with respect to specified decisions as set forth by the court or the parties in the final judgment or order.
• Joint Legal Custody
  "Joint Legal Custody" is child custody arrangement where each parent shares the rights and responsibilities to make major decisions concerning the child.
• Physical Placement
  "Physical Placement" which is also simply called "Placement", means the time periods when a person has the right to have a child physically placed with them and have the right and responsibility to make, during that placement, routine daily decisions regarding the child's care.
• Primary Physical Placement
  "Primary Physical Placement" is a reference to the primary caretaker of the child and the primary home of the child.
• Visitation
  "Visitation" refers to the noncustodial parent's rights to access (see) the child. The word placement is used to mean placement of a child that is not primary.
• Reasonable Visitation upon Reasonable Advance Notice
  "Reasonable Visitation upon Reasonable Advance Notice" is a method of granting the parent without primary placement the right to see the child upon giving adequate notice to the parent with primary placement. This method of fixing placement leaves it to the parties to work out the scheduling of visitation but places primary control in the party with primary physical placement.