Child Custody - what would court consider for half-sisters?

[LakeErie]

From my own research and reading of the law, I understand that judge/court would always like to keep siblings together when awarding child custody.

How would court/judge consider for half-sisters? Say if one parent has a daughter from a previous marriage, and has a smaller child from a new relationship, and the two kids are about 10 years old apart. Who will get the custody of the toddler when the parents break-up if all other factors are about the same? The teenage girl would automatically stay with her biological parent who has the sole custody. And if applying the ‘To the best interest of the child’ doctrine, the younger child would be better off staying with her half-sister and hence being awarded to the same parent.

Are these assumptions valid? Or does this fact of having a half-sister play a role in such a case? If so this would put the other parent of the younger child into a disadvantage situation to start with, right?

Are there any case laws dealing with such matters?

[rmccallion]

I think that this is something that needs to be reviewed carefully - and probably by someone with a legal background. I think that in general that the whole premise of the court system is that the child's well being is the first priority, so it would probably be a matter of there being numerous discussions/negotations on what that means in terms of access and custody. Not a straight forward issue, the judge may even order an assessment from a social worker to help determine what is in the child's best interest.

[wretchedotis]

Generally speaking, the Courts try to keep siblings together in Custody/Access issues. That is more then a fair assumption to make.

However, if one sibling is with one parent 50 percent of the time, and then with the other parent and sister 50 percent of the time, who is to say that the two siblings are NOT still together?

Furthermore, the parent that assumed a parental role to the oldest child may now have a claim for custody/access of that child as well.

This is something I suggest you pay for legal advice on.