Custody Questions

[DwarfMaster]

I'm reading over our Settlement Agreement & I just wondered if someone could clarify the custody terms for me....It says:

"Wife and Husband shall have shared legal custody of the children. Wife shall have primary physical custody of the children and Husband shall have partial physical custody as the parties may agree"

What is the difference between Legal & Physical Custody...aside from the obvious (Where they sleep).

Does a parent with Partial Physical Custody have the right to take the children without the primary person's permission?

 

[momof1princess]

i can tell you that "shared legal custody" means you have joint custody of the children with your husband (soon to be ex i assume) with you having primary physical custody, meaning the children live with you. the next sentence LOOKS like it means that the children visit him anytime the two of you can agree upon, but i can't be sure. bear in mind, i'm not an attorney, just a former legal secretary who used to prepare those documents every day. as to your last question, i'm sorry, but i've never heard of "partial physical custody" before, and you'll need your attorney to clarify it's meaning, not just for you, but so you'll be able to explain it's meaning to your children. best of luck to you.

 

[Chatter Box]

I looked this up by doing a search on the Web..


When the Court makes a decision about custody, it must decide who should have legal custody and who should have physical custody. Legal custody is the right to make major decisions affecting the child, including medical, religious and educational decisions. Physical custody is the right to have the child in your care. There are two types of legal custody - sole and shared. Sole legal custody gives one party the right to make the major decisions concerning the child. When two people share legal custody, they must confer with one another before making major decisions concerning the child. There are four types of physical custody. Primary physical custody gives one party the right to have possession of the child most of the time. Shared physical custody gives two parties the right to have frequent contact with the child. Partial physical custody is the right to unsupervised visitation, and may be for a few hours every week or one day a week, every other week-end, etc. The Court usually orders supervised visitation only when the party is a known danger to the child, such as sexually molested or physically abused the child in the past. Such visitation can be supervised by a relative, a friend, and sometimes, in very serious situations, may be supervised by a county agency.

 

[Rafiki Rafiki Rafiki]

Please be careful reading all of our responses...because the definition of each of these terms varies widely from state to state.

Contact the attorney you are working with and have him/her explain everything to you. Another $200-$500 in legal costs with him may save you thousands down the road.

One little piece of advice: get your agreement written down to the gnat's hind end, and don't forget to write down who will be responsible for all college costs.

If you're concerned about the legality of your spouse leaving the state with your kids, get it clarified IN WRITING as soon as possible. Don't forget to write down who will be responsible for getting the kids to/from visitation in the case one of you moves out of state.
An agreement of "father shall pay for half the costs of travel for his visitation" could get rather expensive if the father moves to Japan, for example.

I'm saying all of this thinking you're just now settling a custody/divorce case. If you're already finished with the agreement and ex-spouse is getting ready to leave the state with your kids, you need to get a restraining order against her/him to keep them in the state. If they leave the state, you're likely to run into a lot of extra costs in trying to get something settled.

I could go on for days about this particular subject, but I won't. I'm not a lawyer; I've just been through this with my husband and his daughter. Her mom moved her 16 times in 4 years through 3 states. I became quite familiar with the laws of Florida, Alabama, and Louisiana before we got custody 6 years ago.

 

[DwarfMaster]

I'm saying all of this thinking you're just now settling a custody/divorce case. If you're already finished with the agreement and ex-spouse is getting ready to leave the state with your kids, you need to get a restraining order against her/him to keep them in the state. If they leave the state, you're likely to run into a lot of extra costs in trying to get something settled.

We are just now finalizing the details of the agreement.

I have asked her to revise it to Sole Legal Custody.
And from what I understand the Partial Physical Custody as parties agree ~ means that he cannot up & leave town without my permission. I really don't think he ever would/could as he has no where to go & no source of income, but I just wanted to clarify this.

 

[jrydberg]

Unless he is abusive, addicted to drugs, a criminal, or something similar, a judge is VERY unlikely to grant sole legal custody (unless, of course, he agrees to give you sole legal custody -- but that sounds unlikely if he wants some visitation). And barring circumstances like those described above, he has every right to shared legal custody.

Partial physical custody as the parties may agree simply indicates the child will be in his custody some indiscriminate length of time subject to agreement between the two of you. Frankly, that seems very vague and likely to cause problems at some point. He can't take the child without your permission, but you can't use your permission to stop him from seeing his child (in a general sense). There are bound to be conflicts there.

Talk to him and work out a schedule that works for the two of you and spell it out in the agreement.

Best of luck with everything.

 

[mudnuri]

This is the part of divorce and seperation that I hate.....for the children.

My x and I have shared legal custody, and joint physical custody, I am the primary physical custodian, only because well someone has to be. They have to have a permanent address etc..

Basically this means, I do not make any decision pertaining to the kids, without his input and the same goes for him. i do not decide to change churches, and neither does he. I do not decide that they are getting braces without consulting him. I do not move without consulting him, vise versa.

The good thing in our situation was that we agreed upon all of our terms. Notice i said- OUR...as in NOT the lawyers.......these were the terms and agreements that we came up with. With the best interest of the CHILDREN....a lot of times (not pointing any fingers) but a lot of times, lawyers get involved and boom the childrens best interest flies out the window..

Brandy