There are a few counties in Kansas who have published Family law Guidelines or Custody Guidelines.  These seem harmless and a way to keep consistency.  However, the problem is that state-wide, they are not consistent.  They also inherently invite prejudgement of noncustodial parents.  KSA 60-1610 does not give preference to which parent should be custodial or if both should have custody equally.  But, by having custody guidelines, there is virtually no chance of a parent getting a fair shake because all judges just look in the book rather than looking at what's right.

Further, the method by which such guidelines are developed is top secret.  We can call them pseudo-laws and they are developed by a hand picked group of judges and attorneys (that's it!).  So, the judges and attorneys you deal with all the time have prejudged your case before you ever arrived, and they all know exactly how it will turn out before the day is over.  Not fair.

Legislation needs to be in place to either a.) mandate that any and all meetings of such committees must be open to the public and all meeting minutes must be published and any such guideline must be approved by a team of legislators, or b.) mandate that no such guideline may exist because it attempts to overrule KSA 60-1610.

Some of the counties and their respective guidelines are discussed a little bit here: http://kschildsupportforum.com/general-discussions/

To an extent I do agree with you.  The reason I think things need to change is because silly things like defining a weekend can't even be accomplished correctly in some of these guidelines.  You and I might figure a weekend is at least Saturday and Sunday, right?  One of the counties defines this as no less than 8 hours.  So 8 hours is a minimum weekend.  This topic is discussed a little more here: http://kschildsupportforum.com/general-discussions/johnson-county-family-law-guidelines/

One father who has posted here was actually denied shared custody because he lived just a few miles outside the guideline-recommended distance for shared custody.  I can see the value in a guideline, but I think in this case it failed this particular father.

I think the biggest problem I have with the guidelines is how they are developed.  They are developed by a team of judges and attorneys who make these rules so they can all enforce them as law.  So they make the rules, and they enforce them.  There is minimal input from the public, and there are no meeting minutes to figure out why certain rules are what they are.

@mykidzmom, if the parents could work out issues so simply and together, perhaps they would not be divorced.  I am personally familiar with a situation where one parent has been identified as more stable, and the other parent has been identified as placing the children in the middle of conflict and causing negative effects on relationship between kids and the more stable parent. Parenting time remains equal because that is what is currently believed to be in the children's best interest.  Per the court, being a pain in the ass is not a crime and does not necessitate reduced parenting time.