When parents get get divorced or seek the courts intervention in creating a custody agreement, the court looks at two different kinds of custody: physical and legal custody. Physical custody refers to which parent the child physical lives with and who raises the child day to day. Legal custody refers to who has the authority to make important decisions for the child relating to medical, education, religious, and other important matters.
Joint Custody
The most common arrangement in most divorces is joint custody and "shared parenting". This is where the court grants a division of both legal and physical custody. Legal custody is typically divided 50/50. This means parents have to work together to decide what to do about religious, educational, medical, and all other important decisions for the child.
Physical custody is greatly dependent upon the individual circumstances of the family.
Courts typically try to divide physical custody as even as possible, but of course it isn't always possible to be fair since parents often live far apart, children have school, and a plethora of other considerations which must be considered in determining how parents will share time. This is where "parenting plans" come in. Parenting plans lay out which parent gets the child when, how drop-off and pick-ups are handled, who pays for things like plane tickets if the child must fly to visitation, etc. The amount of time that each parent receives under the parenting plan can also play into child support. A parent who shares 50/50 custody will very likely pay a different amount than a parent shares 60/40 custody.
Seeking Full Custody
Sometimes one parent has a reason to seek full physical and/or legal custody. You should understand this is rarely given. Courts typically find that a child benefits from even a less than ideal parent's presence in their life. Unless one parent agrees to give up their custodial rights, these battles are time consuming, exhausting, and tend to be very expensive. When sole custody is granted it is typically only when there are extreme cases involving abuse, neglect, parental alienation, or other extreme situations. If you choose to seek full custody understand this will be an uphill battle.
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