NC Forms Index: Name the Job First

Statutes

• N.C. Gen. Stat. § 50-13.2 — Who Entitled to Custody; Terms of Custody; Visitation

  An order for custody must award the child to the person, agency, organization or institution that "will best promote the interest and welfare of the child," and the court must consider all relevant factors, including acts of domestic violence between the parties, the safety of the child, and the safety of either party from domestic violence by the other. The order must include written findings of fact reflecting consideration of each of these factors and supporting the best-interest determination. Between natural or adoptive parents no presumption applies as to who will better promote the child's interest and welfare, and joint custody must be considered on either parent's request. If the court finds domestic violence occurred, it must enter orders that best protect the children and the victim party, and a party's absence or relocation because of domestic violence may not weigh against that party in deciding custody or visitation. A custody order may be modified or vacated at any time on motion and a showing of changed circumstances (G.S. 50-13.7(a)), which the courts construe as a substantial change affecting the child's welfare.

• N.C. Gen. Stat. § 50-13.3 — Enforcement of Order for Custody

  An order providing for the custody of a minor child “is enforceable by proceedings for civil contempt, and its disobedience may be punished by proceedings for criminal contempt, as provided in Chapter 5A, Contempt, of the General Statutes.”

• N.C. Gen. Stat. § 50-13.4 — Action for Support of Minor Child

  Child support must be in an amount that meets the child's reasonable needs for health, education, and maintenance, having due regard to the estates, earnings, conditions, accustomed standard of living of the child and the parties, the child care and homemaker contributions of each party, and other facts of the case. The court determines the amount by applying the presumptive statewide guidelines; on a party's request it must hear evidence and find facts on the child's reasonable needs and each parent's relative ability to provide support. The court may vary from the guidelines only if it finds by the greater weight of the evidence that applying them would not meet or would exceed the child's reasonable needs considering each parent's relative ability to pay, or would be otherwise unjust or inappropriate, and it must make findings on the criteria justifying the deviation and the basis for the amount. Support generally ends at 18, but if the child is still in primary or secondary school it continues until the child graduates, stops attending regularly, fails to make satisfactory academic progress, or reaches 20, whichever comes first, unless the court orders otherwise. If arrears remain when the support obligation ends, payments continue in the same total amount until the arrears are paid, unless the court orders otherwise.

• N.C. Gen. Stat. § 50-13.5(d)(2)-(3) - Ex Parte Temporary Custody Orders

  Once it has jurisdiction of the child, the court may, if the circumstances make it appropriate, enter temporary custody and support orders pending service of process or notice. But a temporary custody order that changes the child's living arrangements or changes custody shall not be entered ex parte and before service or notice unless the court finds the child is exposed to a substantial risk of bodily injury or sexual abuse, or that there is a substantial risk the child may be abducted or removed from North Carolina to evade the jurisdiction of its courts. A temporary order that requires a law enforcement officer to take physical custody of the child must be accompanied by a warrant under G.S. 50A-311. Ordinary motions for custody in a pending action require 10 days' notice, and the statute does not set how soon a hearing must follow an ex parte order; that timing is left to court rules and local practice.

• N.C. Gen. Stat. § 50-13.7 — Modification of Order for Child Support or Custody

  An order of a North Carolina court for custody of a minor child may be modified or vacated at any time, upon a motion in the cause and a showing of changed circumstances by either party or anyone interested, subject to the UCCJEA jurisdiction provisions in G.S. 50A-201, 50A-202, and 50A-204. A child-support order may likewise be modified or vacated at any time upon a motion in the cause and a showing of changed circumstances, subject to the limitations of G.S. 50-13.10. When another state's court entered the custody or support order, a North Carolina court may, after gaining jurisdiction and upon a showing of changed circumstances, enter a new order that modifies or supersedes it. The statute does not itself say how significant the change must be, whether it must affect the child's welfare, or how the best interests of the child are weighed on modification.

• N.C. Gen. Stat. § 50A-204 - Temporary Emergency Jurisdiction

  A North Carolina court has temporary emergency jurisdiction if the child is present in North Carolina and has been abandoned, or it is necessary in an emergency to protect the child because the child, or a sibling or parent of the child, is subjected to or threatened with mistreatment or abuse. If there is no prior enforceable custody order and no case has been filed in a state with jurisdiction under G.S. 50A-201 through 50A-203, the emergency order stays in effect until such a state issues an order, and becomes a final determination if it so provides and no such case is filed, making North Carolina the home state. If there is a prior order or a pending case in a state with jurisdiction, the North Carolina order must specify a period adequate for the parent to obtain an order from that state and lasts only until that order is obtained or the period expires. On learning of a proceeding or order in the state with jurisdiction, the court shall immediately communicate with that court.

• N.C. Gen. Stat. § 5A-21 - Civil Contempt; Imprisonment to Compel Compliance

  Failure to comply with a court order, including a custody, visitation or child support order, is a continuing civil contempt only as long as all four conditions exist: the order remains in force, its purpose may still be served by compliance, the noncompliance is willful, and the person is able to comply or to take reasonable measures that would enable compliance. A person in civil contempt may be imprisoned as long as the contempt continues; for failure to pay child support, or failure to perform an act that does not require paying a money judgment (such as obeying a custody or visitation order), the person may be held as long as the contempt continues without further hearing, but in other cases each commitment may not exceed 90 days for the same act of disobedience, with a total cap of 12 months and a de novo hearing, with findings that all four conditions still exist, before any recommitment. A person found in civil contempt may not be fined and may not be found in criminal contempt for the same conduct.