What is Legal & Physical Child Custody?

There are numerous decisions to be made during a divorce in California, but none is as important as the custody of the child. Such a state offers two types of child custody, i.e. legal and physical. While filing for a divorce, the parents have to go through a tough decision, that with whom the child will live after their divorce.

When parents file for a divorce or separation it is their legal responsibility to create a visitation plan and a parenting time for their children. In order to know and come to a conclusion, a child support lawyer helps by guiding the best. A lawyer helps to know that what is best for the child, by clearing the difference between legal and physical child custody.

The court begins the custody evaluation in the state by presuming that both the spouses are equally entitled to child custody. This means that the decision regarding child custody is not taken on the basis of any biasedness towards one parent or the other. The child's best interest is calculated by the court on the basis of:-

• Safety, health, and welfare of the child
• Child nature and amount of contact he/she has with both the parents
• History of abuse, of any parent against the other parent or the child
• Parents history of illegal use of alcohol, controlled substances, or any prescribed medications
• Any other factor that is believed to be relevant by the court.

Legal Child Custody:-

Legal child custody is a type that provides the right to the parent to make major decisions regarding the child's welfare, as well as health, and education, even after the divorce. Legal custody creates ongoing complications when the child's parents don’t agree on the important decisions that are relevant to their child. This type of custody defines which parent has the right to make important decisions concerning the healthcare, education, welfare, and religious upbringing of the child.

Legal custody further falls into two categories, i.e. joint and sole legal custody. In joint legal custody of the child, both the parents of the child equally share the right as well as the responsibility to make major decisions, while in sole legal custody, only one parent has the right as well as the responsibility to make the major decisions.

Those who share joint legal custody have to communicate with each other and discuss prior to making any decision. However, it is not essential for them to agree on every decision. But it is also their responsibility to avoid unnecessary problems to keep themselves away from land back into court. They must communicate with each other in making any decisions.

Physical Custody:-

Physical custody is a type of child custody that includes the decision of where a child will live after the divorce of the parents. It is a type of custody that gives the parent the right to have the child present in the home physically. Physical custody refers to where and with whom the child physically lives.

When the child lives as per the physical custody with one parent full-time, the parent of the child has sole physical custody. In case the child splits his/her time between the homes of both the parents, they have joint physical custody.

There are various states that award joint physical custody to both parents when a major amount of time is spent by the child with both parents. For this, they can also take the help of a child support lawyer, so that the custody process will become a little easy for them. The parent with physical custody gets to make the everyday decisions.

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