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The Colusa County Superior Court Mediator, an impartial third party, helps the parties develop a parenting plan/agreement; an appointment required - the Child Custody Mediation Intake Form, in English or Spanish, downloaded, printed and filled out in all sections; no mediation appointment scheduled without a submitted intake form - once either party submits a completed form an appointment is scheduled and a Notice of Mediation mailed to both parties; both parties submit the intake form before their mediation appointment, no party allowed to mediate without one; the judge makes no decision about custody/visitation until after the parents have met with a mediator; the office at 547 Market Street, Courthouse Annex, Colusa (mailing address 532 Oak Street), telephone (530) 458-0598, open Mondays 8:30a.m. - 4:30p.m., closed for lunch from 12:00p.m. - 1:00p.m.
California > Third Appellate District > Colusa County > Superior Court of California, County of Colusa
About The Colusa County Superior Court Mediator, provides assistance to parties, as an impartial third party in developing a parenting plan/agreement. The goal of mediation is to develop a parenting plan/agreement that protects the health, safety, welfare and the best interest of your child(ren). Parenting plans outline how parents will care, visit and be responsible for their child(ren) and are meant to provide your child(ren) with a safe and stable way to have close and continuing contact with both parents. Scheduling an Appointment An appointment is required; you must download and fill out the Child Custody Mediation Intake Form, available in English or Spanish. A mediation appointment will not be scheduled without submitting a Child Custody Mediation Intake Form. Please download the intake form from the link above, print the form, and fill out all sections. Once the completed intake form is submitted to our office by either party, an appointment will be scheduled and a Notice of Mediation will be mailed to both parties. Both parties must submit the intake form to our office prior to their mediation appointment. Parties will not be allowed to mediate without an intake form. Please contact our office for further information. Mediator: Rudeen Monte, M.S. Office Location: 547 Market Street, Courthouse Annex, Colusa, CA 95932 Mailing Address: 532 Oak Street, Colusa, CA 95932 Telephone: (530) 458-0598 Fax: (530) 458-5656 Office Hours: Mondays: 8:30a.m. - 4:30p.m. Closed for lunch from 12:00p.m. - 1:00p.m. Frequently Asked Questions What is “custody and visitation”? When you separate or divorce, you need to decide who will have “custody” of your children and how they will be taken care of. You also need to decide on visitation, which means how each parent will spend time with the children. There are two kinds of "custody" orders: Legal custody, which means to who makes important decisions for your children (health care, education, and welfare), and Physical custody, which means who your children live with “Visitation” (also called “time-share”) is: The plan for how the parents will share time with the children. In California, either parent can have custody, or the parents can share custody. The judge makes the final decision about custody and visitation but usually will approve the arrangement both parents agree on. If the parents can't agree, the judge will make a decision at a court hearing. The judge will not make a decision about custody/visitation until after the parents have met with a mediator. What are the types of custody orders? Legal custody can be: Joint, where both parents share the right and responsibility to make important decisions about the heath, education and welfare of the children Sole, where only one parent has the responsibility to make the important decisions about the health, education and welfare of the children Some examples of the decisions or choices parents with legal custody make are: School or childcare Religious activities or institutions Psychiatric, psychological, or other mental health counseling or therapy needs Doctor, dentist, orthodontist, or other health professional (except in emergency situations) Sports, summer camp, vacation, or extracurricular activities Travel Where to live Physical custody can be: Joint, which means that the children live with both parents Sole or primary, which means the children live with one parent most of the time and usually visit the other parent Sometimes, a judge gives parents joint legal custody, but not joint physical custody. This means both parents share the responsibility in making important decisions in the children’s lives. But, the children live with one parent most of the time. The parent who does not have physical custody usually has visitation with the children. What are the types of visitation orders? Visitation: When the parent who does not have the children more than half of the time has visitation with the children. Generally, it helps the parents and children to have detailed visitation plans to prevent conflicts and confusion Supervised Visitation: When the children's safety and well-being require that visits with the other parent be supervised by you, another adult, or a professional agency. Supervised visitation is sometimes also used in cases where a child and a parent need time to become more familiar with each other, like if a parent hasn’t seen the child in a long time and they need to slowly get to know each other again No Visitation: This option is used in situations when visiting with the parent, even with supervision, could be physically or emotionally harmful to the children. What are a “time-share plan” and a “parenting plan”? A time-share plan is another term used for visitation plan. A parenting plan can be a visitation plan, but usually also includes a custody plan that explains who has legal and physical custody. What does the law consider when deciding custody and visitation? The law says that judges must give custody according to what is in the best interest of the child. Judges look at the children’s health, safety and wellbeing to decide whether to give custody to one or both parents. Courts also consider any history of abuse by one or both of the parents. Courts do not automatically give custody to the mother or the father, no matter what the age or sex of your children. Courts cannot deny your right to custody or visitation just because you were never married to the other parent, or because you or the other parent has a physical disability, or a different lifestyle, religious belief or sexual orientation. In a few cases, if giving custody to either parent would harm the children, courts give custody to someone other than the parents because it is in the best interest of the children. Usually, this is called “guardianship,” where someone who is not the parent asks for custody of the children because the parents cannot care for the children. For more information, see Colusa's Self-Help page. What is “the best interest of the child”? It is what judges must consider to make their decisions about custody and visitation. To decide what is best for a child, the court will consider: The age of the child, The health of the child, The emotional ties between the parents and the child, The child's ties to school, home and their community, The ability of the parents to care for the child, Any history of family violence and/or substance abuse. If we have joint legal custody, do we have to agree on every decision? No, with joint legal custody both parents have the right to make decisions and either parent can make certain decisions on their own. It is important that parents cooperate in making decisions that require both parents' attention and to communicate any decisions that they make independently that might affect the other parent. I need some help talking about this with my kids. Can you recommend other resources? We recommend visiting the Families Change website. It provides age-appropriate information to help kids, teens and parents deal with a family break up.
About The Colusa County Superior Court Mediator, provides assistance to parties, as an impartial third party in developing a parenting plan/agreement. The goal of mediation is to develop a parenting plan/agreement that protects the health, safety, welfare and the best interest of your child(ren). Parenting plans outline how parents will care, visit and be responsible for their child(ren) and are m
Reviewer note: Composed 2026-10-12 (California T4 Colusa build 2026-10-12) from BenchPath custody ca/t4/ca-colusa/pages/divisions__family-law__court-mediator.html (the page as fetched 2026-10-12; 576009 bytes, sha256 e49848829ea76545dd275fa57e8142612711f2f663852298cf78849942fdbd8b) with the Orange HTML composer (compose-site.py, the Judicial Council theme's area): the article's content sections (section.jcc-section), news bodies (div.jcc-news-full) and title banners (div.jcc-hero; the first banner's heading, the page title, is chrome) - the site header, menus, breadcrumb and footer lie outside them; each block starts a line and each table cell is set on its own line; chrome removed: 1 item (the page title); proof (the multiset of non-space characters equals the containers' text less chrome and scripts) passes. Review note: The page puts the Court Mediator’s office at “547 Market Street, Courthouse Annex”, as the Family Law, Small Claims and Self-Help pages put theirs, while the court’s location pages name 547 Market St the “Main Courthouse Dept. 1” and 532 Oak St. the “Courthouse Annex Dept. 2” (a review task).
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