There are four main types of custody that is granted by the court.

Physical Custody

Physical custody gives you the right to have your children live with you. You will be responsible for the daily needs of your kids, for example, taking care of them when they are sick and other major needs like school book, food and clothing. But this doesn’t mean you would have them 100 per cent of the time as there could be joint physical custody with your ex or visitation rights involved.

Legal Custody

Legal custody means you can make major decisions that will affect your child’s life — for example, healthcare, education, religion and extra-curricular activities.

Joint Custody

Physical and legal custody may be shared between both parents.

Joint physical custody allows your children to split their time equally with both parents. If the parents live close to each other, then a back-and-forth arrangement is possible. You children could spend alternate weeks with each parent for instance. Even if the time shared with your children does not fall into equal parts, you can still have joint legal custody.

Sole Custody

Sole custody awards the custodial parent the sole right and responsibility to make all major decisions regarding their children without the need to consult the other parent.

Even if you get awarded sole physical custody of your children, most courts would still give joint legal custody, in the belief that both parents should be involved in all major decisions made for their kids.

Many states rule on the basis that the parents should still maintain frequent contact for the sake of preserving parental bonds with their children even though the marital bond is broken. In this sense, the courts generally favor joint custody in some form. This requires the parents to co-operate in a civil relationship and communicate with each other about any concerns of their children’s well being.

The main factor that the courts think about is what would be the most stable scenario for the children.

However, if the parents live far away from each another, the court might decide that the child stay with one parent during the school year and live with the other when school breaks. Other occasions, such as holidays and birthdays will be discussed during the custody negotiations.

In the event of one parent being awarded sole physical custody, it’s common for the non-custodial parent to receive visitation rights.

Related posts:

1. Basic facts of child support
2. Sharing custody Part 1: Factors determining custody award
3. Sharing custody Part 2: Benefits of child custody mediation

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