Joint Custody in New York

NEW YORK CUSTODY LAWYERS

If you and your spouse have decided to dissolve your marriage, your children will be arguably the focal point of your divorce agreement. Deciding things like alimony and asset division are no doubt important, but figuring out the best custodial agreement is vital to the overall wellbeing of the family. One potential option for child custody in a divorce is joint custody. This does not necessarily mean that custody will be equal, but only that it will be shared to some degree. In other situations, one parent may retain full custody of their child while the other parent will be given visitation rights. Visitation is not to be confused with partial custody because there are unique responsibilities that parents have toward their children if they are the custodial guardian that a visiting parent will not have.

For example, only a legal and custodial parent will be able to make major decisions in the life of their child. A parent who has sole custody of their child will be the one that can decide what school their child goes to, what doctor they see and even what extracurricular activities they will participate in. If parents who have joint custody disagree about what their child should be involved in, this may or may not present a problem. For example, if one parent wants their child on a special diet and the other does not, each parent has the freedom to feed their child what they wish on the days that they have the children in their physical custody. For larger life decisions, the parents must come to an agreement.