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What are the Differences Between Sole and Joint Custody?
When a husband and wife are going through a divorce with children, the custodial rights between the parents are given consideration. Custody of the children can involve many decisions such as medical issues, educational issues, religious issues and legal issues.
When a parents have a joint custody agreement, the parents will both make these decisions together and form an agreement that is best for the child. An example of this is if your child needs to get braces. In some cases the insurance will only cover half of the cost of the orthodontist. The parents then will have to come into a mutual agreement of how they will come up with the funds to cover the rest of the costs. If the parents cannot come up with a decision, the parents may seek a mediator to help them with the decision.
Another type of custody is sole custody. This is when one of the parents that have sole custody gets to make the final decision regarding the children. In many states sole custody is not popular as they think both of the parents should have a hand in making the decision that is best for the children. In this case you are then parenting with the court and if the court doesn’t like the decision you’ve made for your child it could cause problems.
Ultimately, the court is very pro joint custody. You will want to think about when you and your spouse were married and which parent made the major and final decisions regarding the children. Was it just one of you or did you both make the decisions together? How well did you converse with each other and make this decision together?
Some of the reasons why a parent could be a poor decision maker are if the parent is involved in drug use or drinking. Another reason could be if domestic violence was involved. All these things will have to be proven as when someone’s custodial rights are in question; the court has a very high standard.
If you want to obtain full custody when the other parent does not agree to it, you will have to prove, in front of the child, domestic violence. Another way is to prove the parent has a drinking and driving problem with a DUI that has happened within a year of the divorce. One more reason is to prove the parent has a drug problem.
You will want to consider carefully when fighting for joint or sole custody. Remember your children and what is best for them. You will want to make sure you do not let your emotions get in the way of making decisions for your children’s future. The best is to find a good family child custody lawyer to help represent you and give you all the tools you need to ensure that your children’s future is the best it can be.