Joint Custody

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In simple terms, child custody agreements can be divided into two categories: Physical custody and legal custody. While physical custody refers to the actual care and maintenance of the child, legal custody can be granted to any carer or parent capable of making legal decisions on the child's behalf. It is inside this complex structure that joint custody; legal, physical, or both, must be decided.

Join custody can be applied to physical and legal custody independent of each other, but they are typically both granted. Joint custody might not be applied to physical custody when it is impractical; for example, when both parents live a great distance apart, additionally, legal joint custody might not be granted if one parent is illegally living in the country or is incapable or somehow exempt from legal proceedings due to convictions or other laws.

In most countries and US states joint custody is the de facto result of a custody battle unless either plaintiff can demonstrate that a 50/50 physical or legal custody is not in the child's best interests. In a joint custody battle the child's best interests are central to the court's decision. While convictions, evidence of drug use or anti-social behaviour will heavily weight against the offending parent, more benign care issues will be considered when establishing sole or joint custody:

• Does the child have brothers and sisters? Families are not split for convenience or fairness as it is generally accepted that siblings should be kept together. In this case, it is possible that all children will be part of the joint custody agreement.

• Has a parent re-married or somehow able to present a more complete family environment? Though the court won't hold single status against someone, a more complete family environment will be looked upon kindly.

• Does one parent have access to better quality schooling? This is a clear demonstration of how the child's best interest is very carefully considered in any joint custody case.

In simple terms: Joint custody agreements are always a main objective, because that is generally in the child's best interest, however, if a parent is able to demonstrate, by virtue of a combination of the factors presented above and many others, that a child's best interest is fulfilled by sole custody, then the court will have no choice but to award it to a single parent.

We provide additional resources on this subject on our child custody laws, children and divorce and custody pages.