New amendments to the Polish Family and Guardianship Code aim to define shared custody, seeking to increase its application and ensure children maintain consistent contact with both parents after separation.
What is shared custody?
Shared custody is a model where children divide their time equally between parents, commonly alternating every two weeks. This approach is intended to provide children with stable relationships with both parents while ensuring an equitable distribution of caregiving responsibilities.
Currently, while the law allows for this arrangement, it lacks specific regulations or defined criteria for courts to follow. Because the existing mandate focuses on the broad and interpretive concept of the “child’s best interest,” shared custody is rarely awarded unless parents reach a mutual agreement.
Proposed legislative changes
For years, the Ombudsman and family law practitioners have highlighted that courts often avoid shared custody or apply it inconsistently. The proposed amendment to the Family and Guardianship Code seeks to introduce a clear definition of shared custody to address these judicial discrepancies.
The government justifies this change as a means to encourage equal parental rights and duties. The reform aims to mitigate the emotional damage of separation by prioritizing a child’s stability and consistent contact with both the mother and father.
Defining the criteria for shared custody
The amendment will establish specific legal guidelines for courts when deciding on shared custody arrangements. The primary principle remains the child’s best interest, supplemented by a set of concrete evaluation factors.
Future rulings will consider the child’s age and health, the parents’ communication and cooperation skills, the parents’ personal circumstances, the distance between their homes, and the historical division of parental responsibilities. Courts will, however, retain the authority to grant custody to only one parent or limit parental rights in specific cases.
