Legal and Physical Custody
Legal and Physical Custody: What is the difference?
We get lots of questions about the differences between legal and physical custody. Often, a client will come in and say, “I just want joint custody.”
And we always say, “What does joint custody mean to you?”
Invariably, the client has an imprecise understanding of legal and physical custody. But, that’s normal, and our job is help clarify the issue.
Legal Custody: Parents’ Rights and Responsibilities
Legal custody relates to parents’ rights and responsibilities to their children. Parents have the right to participate in the raising of their children. And, they have the responsibility to make good decisions for their children. Georgia custody law recognizes four areas of parental decision-making.
- Educational: where the children attend school; and how their curriculum or special educational needs are implemented.
- Extracurricular Activities: children’s participation in sports, hobbies, and clubs.
- Healthcare: vaccination decisions, choice of physicians and providers, elective medical treatments, mental health decisions, etc.
- Religious Upbringing and Instruction: church attendance, religious confirmations, sacraments, and religious instruction.
Joint Legal Custody
Joint legal custody means both parents have legal authority. That authority includes the right to make major decisions for their children. Because they will be making decisions together, both parents need to be able to communicate with one another. And for each area of decision-making, one parent will have tie-breaking authority. That means: if the parents cannot agree on a decision, then one parent will ultimately get to decide.
Physical Custody
Physical custody refers to where the children spend their time, living equally with both parents or living primarily with one parent and having parenting time with the other parent. Physical custody arrangements should be tailored to fit the children’s and parents’ needs. They typically address weeknight, weekend, holiday, and summer parenting time for both parents.
Joint Physical Custody
Joint physical custody usually means that the children spend equal time with both parents. But, that’s more of a trend than a rule. You can check out various physical custody arrangements in this graphic.
Joint Physical Custody Schedules
Parenting Plan
Legal and physical custody terms are set forth in a court document called a Parenting Plan. The Parenting Plan is either something the parties’ have agreed to during their divorce or reflects what a judge decided in a trial.