Jessica L. Pearson v. Kyle Pearson

Summary

The Pennsylvania Superior Court reviewed a child-custody order awarding shared legal custody, primary physical custody to Mother, and supervised physical custody to Father subject to conditions for obtaining unsupervised and equally shared custody. The court held that the order improperly provided for an automatic future modification without a contemporaneous determination of the child’s best interests under the Child Custody Act and without the trial court reviewing the risk of harm and need for continued supervision. The court affirmed the existing custody and safety requirements in part, vacated the automatic-modification provisions, and remanded.

Holdings

1. A custody order may not provide for automatic modification from supervised custody to equally shared unsupervised custody upon completion of specified requirements without further trial-court consideration of the section 5328(a) custody factors and the child's best interests.
2. When supervised custody has been ordered, the parent subject to supervision must petition for review, and the trial court must review the risk of harm and need for continued supervision before modifying or terminating supervised custody.
3. The trial court may not delegate to an independently selected therapist the judicial determination whether the parent poses a risk of harm or whether supervised custody should end.

Questions Presented

1. Whether a custody order may automatically convert supervised custody into equally shared unsupervised custody upon the parent's completion of court-imposed requirements without a later determination of the child's best interests under the statutory custody factors.
2. Whether the trial court may delegate to a therapist the determination whether the parent continues to pose a risk of harm and whether supervised custody should end.

Disposition

other