Is physical custody the same as legal custody?
There are two types of custody: legal custody and physical custody. In almost all cases both of the custody types are shared between the parents. Legal custody involves decision making regarding the child’s life while physical custody deals with daily caretaking of the child.
What does having physical custody mean in California?
“Physical custody” refers to where a child will live after a divorce or separation. Physical custody is quite different from legal custody. The parent with physical custody has the right to have the child physically present in the home.
What does sole legal and physical custody mean in California?
Physical custody can be: Joint, which means that the children live with both parents. Sole or primary, which means the children live with 1 parent most of the time and usually visit the other parent.
What is proof of legal or physical custody?
If you have sole legal custody of your child, bring the court order that shows you have sole legal custody. If you are the mother, and not married to the father, you can also show this by bringing a birth certificate which only lists the mother.
Can you have physical custody but not legal custody?
In a divorce, custody of children is broken down into two elements: legal and physical. It’s not unusual for legal and physical custody to be set up differently. For example, parents might have joint legal custody, but not joint physical custody, especially if the parents live some distance apart.
What is the difference between primary and physical custody?
If the children spend approximately two-thirds of the time with one parent, that parent is generally referred to as the primary-care parent and has sole physical custody. However, if the parents share parenting time approximately equally, they have shared physical custody.
What does full physical custody mean?
Physical custody encompasses where the child lives and who cares for them. Sole physical custody (also called sole residential custody, sole parenting time, etc.) means that your child lives with one parent, called the custodial or residential parent.
What does it mean to have full legal and physical custody?
The term custody refers to the legal and physical custody of a child. Sole legal custody (also called sole parental responsibility) is when one parent has full responsibility to make major decisions for the child. …
What does primary legal and physical custody mean?
Normally speaking, a primary physical custody arrangement is when both parents have rights to the children but one parent spends more time with the children. The children generally would live with the primary custodian, and the non-custodial parent will have rights to visitations.
What is sole legal custody compared to sole physical custody?
Legal custody is about which parent makes the major decisions for a child: health care, schooling, moral development, etc. Physical custody is about where the child resides. Therefore, if a parent has sole legal and physical custody, that parent makes all of the major decisions for the child and has the child most of the time.
What does sole physical custody mean?
Sole physical custody is an arrangement where the children live with one parent — called the primary custodial parent — more than 50% of the time. This generally allows the children to live in one residence or ‘home base,’ as opposed to going back and forth between two homes.
What does legal custody mean?
Legal Custody. Legal custody of a child means having the right and the obligation to make decisions about a child’s upbringing. A parent with legal custody can make decisions about the child’s schooling, religious upbringing and medical care, for example. In many states, courts regularly award joint legal custody,…
What is temporary physical custody?
Temporary child custody, issued through a temporary custody order, is a court’s decision to award physical custody of a minor child to one parent pending a final determination of custody.