Divorcing parents often have a lot of questions about their child’s future. Where will their child live? Who makes decisions for their child? Will both parents be involved in their child’s life?
Each parent’s physical and legal child custody rights will ultimately inform the answer to these questions – and more. Learning more about child custody options and how it impacts your rights as a parent can help ease your concerns and allow you to make strategic choices. Here are the basics:
What is joint and sole legal custody?
Legal custody allows a parent to decide how their child is raised by giving them authority over important issues. For example, a parent with legal custody may decide what type of medical care their child receives, their religious upbringing, what school they attend and their extracurricular activities.
Legal custody can be shared by parents in a joint arrangement – and generally is. Co-parents often decide on important matters together for their child. In situations where one parent has sole legal custody, then that parent will have unilateral authority over those issues without the other parent’s input.
What is joint and sole physical custody?
Physical custody determines where a child lives. Parents with physical custody are responsible for meeting their child’s daily needs for food, shelter and more.
Like legal custody, physical custody is usually shared, so parenting time will usually revolve around a formal schedule that is either mutually agreed upon or court-ordered. The custody schedule may rotate every day, week or month depending on what fits a child’s best interests and physical custody could be shared 50-50, 60-40, 70-30 or some other split.
When one parent is awarded sole physical custody, the other parent may still be given visitation. That visitation may be supervised or unsupervised, but will also occur on a schedule.
Parents can seek legal guidance to answer any questions they have about child custody. Early consultation with an experienced attorney can help avoid a lot of confusion.