Custody question

How does custody get decided when the parents arent married?

Do they try and work it out themselves? If there is a dispute would the court get involved? And what would the deciding criteria be?

Custody afterward.

So its not really an even playing field then in deciding custody? Its weighted towards the maternal side?

Ideally the parents would work it out themselves. Usually one parent (generally the mother) would be the custodial parent, and then access arrangements would be made for the other parent.

The courts would get involved if a suitable agreement was not able to be reached between the parents.

Marital status is neither here nor there in the eyes of the law. The mother and father are exactly that whether married or not.

It's not called custody and access anymore - it's day to day care and contact. Anyway, there has been a big move in the last year or so to shared care regimes (e.g. week-about) especially when both parents live in similar proximity to the child's school. Ideally you would work it out between yourselves and you can even get that documented in an agreement by a lawyer if you wish, failing either of those options you need to get legal advice and likely proceedings. The first thing that happens following that is a referral to (confidential) counselling but you can get the referral to counselling done through your nearest Court without proceedings, if you wish. It only takes one of you to apply and it's free. A lot of people find that they can agree on arrangements with the help of a third party in that capacity.

U get joint custody, unless there is a reason one of the parents is unfit. custody doesn't go automatically to the mother. If you can trust the father stay out of court if you think it might get messy court isn't as bad as many say. And they just take into account whats best for the kid/s.