As a divorce lawyer in San Diego, I often am asked what does the court mean by the title “Legal Custody?” This is a question I was responsible for answering when I worked at Family Court Services and it is a topic I have explained a multitude of times as a family law attorney.
In San Diego, Legal Custody is the ability to make decisions about the health, education, and welfare of your children. That’s some great legalese for saying that if you have legal custody you can decide where your child goes to school, decide which doctor your child sees, discuss concerns about your child with the doctor and teachers, therapists, and other professionals working with them.
Now that that has been explained, this blog could end right there. However, there are various other aspects of legal custody that should be further discussed. The reality of legal custody is not as easy as the above explanation sounds. There are two types of legal custody. 1. Sole 2. Joint.
First let’s discuss what is meant by the term Sole Legal Custody. This basically means that one parent of the child has the ability to make the decisions that were discussed above without the other parent’s permission. The misconception sometimes is that when a parent has sole legal custody, they think they do not have to inform the other parent of the decisions they make. Unless the court order specifically states that fact, the parent with sole legal custody is still usually responsible for informing the other parent of the decisions they make regarding their children.
Generally, with sole legal custody, the parent without legal custody does not have the ability to make decisions, but they still may be allowed to consult with professionals working with their children. This is dependent upon the wording of the court order. This can be a situation where one parent has not seen their child for a while or has not been involved in any decision making for that child. In some of these situations, the court may allow the custodial parent (the parent with whom the child resides) to make decisions for the child, but still allows the other parent to talk to their teachers, doctors, or other professionals in order to introduce that parent into the child’s life. Possibly in time, if that parent has ongoing contact with their child and their child’s teachers, doctors, etc., then there exists the chance they can be granted joint legal custody in the future.
The concept of Joint Legal Custody will be discussed in a future blog.
