Different Types of California Child Custody Arrangements Explained

There are two types of custody:  legal and physical.  Legal custody is the right and responsibility to make the decisions about your child’s welfare, health, and education.  If one parent has sole legal custody of his or her child, he has the exclusive right to make decisions relating to the child’s health, and education and welfare.  If the parents share joint legal custody, both parents share the right and responsibility to make these decisions.

Physical custody refers to who the child resides with and is supervised by.  If one parent has sole physical custody, the child exclusively resides with and is supervised by that parent, subject to the other parent’s visitation rights.  If the parents share joint physical custody, each has significant periods of physical custody, and custody is shared in such a way as to ensure that the child has frequent and continuing contact with both parents.  However, the timeshare is not necessarily equal.

For more information about California’s child custody laws, please contact us.  Please remember that each individual situation is unique and results discussed in this post are not a guarantee of future results.  While this post may include legal issues, it is not legal advice.  Use of this site does not create an attorney-client relationship.