Joint legal custody shares decision-making while joint physical custody shares residential time. The two are independent, and joint legal custody with primary physical custody to one parent is common.
Many states presume joint legal custody serves the child.
Alternative Names:
Shared Custody|Joint Legal and Physical Custody
Why it Matters?
Joint legal and joint physical custody are frequently conflated, which produces agreements granting joint custody without specifying which type and generating disputes about whether residential time was intended to be shared. Specifying both dimensions separately in the parenting plan prevents that. Joint physical custody also triggers different support calculations in most guideline formulas.
Frequently Confused with
Related terms
Frequently asked questions
What conflation causes disputes?
Does joint physical custody affect support?
