Chandler Divorce Lawyer - What Is Joint Custody And What Is Sole Custody?

When youre talking about joint custody and sole custody youre talking about the custodial rights of parents about their children

. Many times, when a husband and wife are divorcing, theyre giving some consideration as to what type of custody they can have.

Custody covers a couple of different areas. It covers decision making with regards to medical issues for your child. It covers also legal issues for your child. Religious issues as well as educational issues.

So when you have a joint custody agreement, that means that both husband and wife will make decisions with regards to all four of those areas.

A perfectly good example of that is when, say for the example, the mother, the father says, Our child needs orthodontia. And unfortunately the orthodontist doesnt take insurance or only our insurance covers half of it. So Id like to get braces on our son or daughter by next year. For example.

Now the other parent has to agree. And if theyre unable to make a decision on something like that and maybe the other party feels that they dont have the funds for it or that maybe if they waited that would be better for the child,whatever it might beif the parties cant agree on something like that, and thats covered under medical decisions, then the parties can go to a mediator. That mediator will make the final decision.

My point is that you make only decisions in those four areas together. And if you cant make them together, then theres a third party that steps in like a mediator or the court that makes the decision for you.

The other type of custody you can have is sole custody. Thats where just one parent is the final decision maker. In my scenario about the orthodontia, if it was the mother that wanted the orthodontia and she also was the sole custodial parent, she wouldnt have to consult with her husband, her ex-husband I should say, or the father to make a decision like that. She should simply go ahead and do it.

Sole custody is not particularly popular in Arizona. The reason being is the court really believes that there should be two parents making decisions. Because when there isnt another parent there to make a decision because sole custody is in effect, youre really parenting with the court. Ultimately, the court may not like the decisions that youve made with regards to your child.

The court is very pro-joint custody. And again, its just in those four areas.

So people do get hung up on terminology.

When you make a decision like whether it should be joint custody or sole custody, what has the decision making been in the past? While the two of you were married, who was the parent who made the most decisions? Was it freely a sole custodial situation where only one parent made the decision or did you converse with one another? Because thats not going to change. Youre still going to be parents even after youre divorced.

So its a really sticky issue for a lot of people. What the court looks to in making a decision about sole custody is they want to know that the other parent who is not going to have custodial rights, who is not going to be able to make decisions on medical, legal, religion, or education is a poor decision maker.

Proof of a poor decision maker is going to be drinking and driving. Thats a good example. Drug use that can be proven. Thats another good example. Or sadly domestic violence thats occurred in front of the child.

The court really has a very high standard before they will take away someones custodial rights. In order to obtain full custody if the other parent doesnt agree to it, you do have to go through those steps and have actual proof of domestic violence in front of the child; of a drinking and driving problem like a DUI thats happened within, say, a year of the divorce; or a substantial drug problem that you can prove.

Thats really what youre looking at when you talk about joint custody or youre talking about sole custody.

Interesting. Very interesting. And you brought up some interesting points in there, as well, that I would not have thought to ask about.

by: Christy Thompson

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