Senate Bill 2484, seeking to create a presumption of joint custody died yesterday, March 12.

This Bill which passed the Senate initially, then amended in the House, passed and sent back was ultimately not voted on and died a calendar death on 3/12/25.

It sought to require Joint Physical Custody and equal parenting time in every custody case unless the Court found a compelling reason to not grant shared parenting.

It necessarily would have put the every other weekend schedule as “standard” as outdated…

It also sought to amend child support determinations in the event joint custody was granted.

But, alas, it’s for naught. The scuttlebutt was there was an upswell of concerns about how far this proposal really went and that judges and even some family law attorneys had concerns.

Regardless, there will be no significant changes in family law this session…

Matthew Thompson is a child custody and child welfare attorney in Mississippi.