Custody Arrangements
In our days, one of the biggest conflicts in a divorce case is child custody and visitation. There are two major types of custody, joint custody and sole custody. In joint custody, the child usually resides with just one of the parents, while both parents are informed and make decisions in the child’s life. In sole custody, the parent with whom the child lives makes all the decisions in the child’s life. However, the other parent (the non-custodial parent) may still have visitation rights.
Kinds of child custody arrangements
When two parents go through a divorce, they have the right of working out the child custody arrangements on their own. This fact means that there is no need for a judge or any king of court. All it takes is patience and an open mind. However, in many cases, the two parents are not able to come to an agreeable decision together. If this happens, the court will have to determine the child custody arrangement suited to the child’s best interest. There are four basic kinds of child custody arrangements. These include all four types of custody, joint legal custody, sole legal custody, sole physical custody, and joint physical custody. Although the specifics of each of these kinds may vary from one state to another, the custody types share certain characteristics. To start with, there are two types of legal custody arrangements. Legal custody primarily refers to the rights and responsibilities of the parents as they relate to the child. These areas can include things like education, health, and general well-being. Joint legal custody means that both parents have these rights and responsibilities in equal measure. This type of custody requires that both parents will be able to work together with one another for the overall benefits of the children. It also requires the court to receive a detailed plan about how the joint legal custody would work. This plan will be provided by the two parents. The other sort of legal custody arrangement is sole legal custody. In this arrangement, one parent retains all those legal rights and responsibilities. This is the most common sort of legal custody in any divorce. Even in this sort of custody, the non-custodial (the parent who didn’t receive legal custody) parent may still have visitation rights. However, he has a few other rights in regard to the children. There are also two types of physical custody arrangements. The first one, sole physical custody, is a situation in which only one of the parents has the majority of contact with the child, and most of the custody rights. This type of agreement requires the child to live exclusively with that parent. In sole physical custody, the non-custodial parent may again still retain visitation rights. Joint physical custody is a child custody arrangement in which both parents have large amounts of equal contact with the child. While this doesn’t have to be exactly 50-50, some states do have very specific guidelines for joint physical child custody arrangements. The results showed that without parental conflict, children in physical joint-custody arrangements showed fewer behavioral problems than children under the custody of a single parent. Many of the noncustodial parents seeking joint physical custody object that they are like a visitor in the child’s life. They also want their child to live with them at least part of the time rather than visit infrequently. One study found that, when joint-custody parents do not have equal time sharing, mothers always have the larger share of time. You can find more about child custody arrangements by reading your state’s laws. You can do this at any library or you might surf an attorney’s or judge’s website. These websites may contain the important information you are seeking or at least some other ways to obtain it. However, the best and safest way to document yourself on the subject of child custody arrangements is to get in touch with an family law attorney. Be careful to take into consideration that laws differ from state to state and search for relevant laws regarding your state. Your divorce or family law attorney may be able to help you further understand the kinds of child custody arrangements in your state.