Opinion ID: 853156
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Standard of Review for Custody and Visitation Judgments

Text: Under Indiana Code Ann. § 31-17-2-21 (West 2001), a court may not modify a child custody order unless modification is in the child's best interests and there is a substantial change in one of several factors that a court may consider in initially determining custody. [4] In the initial custody determination, both parents are presumed equally entitled to custody, but a petitioner seeking subsequent modification bears the burden of demonstrating the existing custody should be altered. Under Ind.Code Ann. § 31-14-14-2 (West 2000), [t]he court may modify an order granting or denying visitation rights whenever modification would serve the best interests of the child. We review custody modifications for abuse of discretion, with a preference for granting latitude and deference to our trial judges in family law matters. In re Marriage of Richardson, 622 N.E.2d 178, 178 (Ind.1993) (affirming trial court judgment shifting primary custody of children to father). We set aside judgments only when they are clearly erroneous, and will not substitute our own judgment if any evidence or legitimate inferences support the trial court's judgment. Id. at 179 (citing Ind. Trial Rule 52(A)). We explained the reason for this deference in Brickley v. Brickley, 247 Ind. 201, 204, 210 N.E.2d 850, 852 (1965) (footnote omitted): While we are not able to say the trial judge could not have found otherwise than he did upon the evidence introduced below, this Court as a court of review has heretofore held by a long line of decisions that we are in a poor position to look at a cold transcript of the record, and conclude that the trial judge, who saw the witnesses, observed their demeanor, and scrutinized their testimony as it came from the witness stand, did not properly understand the significance of the evidence, or that he should have found its preponderance or the inferences therefrom to be different from what he did. Therefore, [o]n appeal it is not enough that the evidence might support some other conclusion, but it must positively require the conclusion contended for by appellant before there is a basis for reversal. [5] Id. (citations omitted).