{"id":274,"date":"2016-05-27T14:23:13","date_gmt":"2016-05-27T18:23:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/toronto-familylawyer.com\/toronto-family-lawyer\/the-childs-views-and-preferences-custody-or-access\/"},"modified":"2025-05-07T01:58:12","modified_gmt":"2025-05-07T05:58:12","slug":"the-childs-views-and-preferences-custody-or-access","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vapits.com\/jnm\/blog\/the-childs-views-and-preferences-custody-or-access\/","title":{"rendered":"The Child&#8217;s Views and Preferences &#8211; Custody or Access"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Pursuant to section 24 (1) (2) (b) of the <em>Children\u2019s Law Reform Act<\/em>, the merits of an application in respect of <a href=\"https:\/\/toronto-familylawyer.com\/child-custody-lawyer-toronto\/\">child custody<\/a> of or <a href=\"https:\/\/toronto-familylawyer.com\/child-access-lawyer-toronto\/\">child access<\/a> to a child shall be determined on the basis of the best interests of the child, in accordance with subsections (2), (3) and (4).<\/p>\n<p>Section 2 of the Act deals with what is in the best interest of the child and mandates the court to consider all the child\u2019s needs and circumstances including, the child\u2019s views and preferences, if they can reasonably be ascertained.<\/p>\n<p>The older and mature the child, the more the child\u2019s views can reasonably be ascertained. For example, a 15 year old that is bright and well adjusted, his or her views can be given great weight if he or she expresses not to be in contact with the other parent.<\/p>\n<p>A judge can also give great weight to a mature 15 year old\u2019s wishes with respect to the timing and duration of access visits with the other parent.<\/p>\n<p>In some cases, despite the child being older or mature, the courts are unable to ascertain the children\u2019s true views and preferences due to parental or caregiver\u2019s undue influence.<\/p>\n<p>Learn more, email:\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:jane@jnmlaw.com\">jane@jnmlaw.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pursuant to section 24 (1) (2) (b) of the Children\u2019s<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[150,151,95,96,91,92,97,98,152,84,94,99,153,100],"class_list":["post-274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-childs-views-and-preferences-on-access","tag-childs-views-and-preferences-on-custody","tag-etobicoke-family-lawyer","tag-mississauga-family-lawyer","tag-north-york-divorce-lawyer","tag-north-york-family-lawyer","tag-richmond-hill-family-lawyer","tag-scarborough-family-lawyer","tag-the-childs-views-and-preferences","tag-toronto-divorce-lawyer","tag-toronto-family-lawyer","tag-vaughan-family-lawyer","tag-weight-given-on-childs-wishes-in-a-custody-battle","tag-woodbridge-family-lawyer"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Toronto Child Access | Custody | Separation | J.N. Mukongolo Family Lawyer Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Learn about your rights to Child Custody, Child Access, Divorce and Separation. Talk to Jane Mukongolo - Toronto Family Lawyer. Email: jane@jnmlaw.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Toronto Child Access | Custody | Separation | J.N. Mukongolo Family Lawyer Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Learn about your rights to Child Custody, Child Access, Divorce and Separation. Talk to Jane Mukongolo - Toronto Family Lawyer. Email: jane@jnmlaw.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/vapits.com\/jnm\/blog\/the-childs-views-and-preferences-custody-or-access\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"J.N. Mukongolo Family Lawyer Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-05-27T18:23:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-05-07T05:58:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jane Mukongolo\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jane Mukongolo\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/vapits.com\/jnm\/blog\/the-childs-views-and-preferences-custody-or-access\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/vapits.com\/jnm\/blog\/the-childs-views-and-preferences-custody-or-access\/\",\"name\":\"Toronto Child Access | Custody | Separation | J.N. 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