What is Legal Custody vs Physical Custody? |
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Michigan family law and divorce attorneys Henry Gornbein and Alisa Peskin-Shepherd discuss the definitions of legal custody and physical custody, and the differences between them.
Henry: What about, let’s start going through kind of issues, if there is children the first issue is custody, so why don’t you tell our viewers what is meant by legal custody? Alisa: Legal custody involves the children’s health, welfare, and education, and who is making those decisions with regards to the child’s care, not a daily basis but the larger choices like religion and education, and usually, even in divorce, both parents decide that they are both involved in major choices for their children, both have access to school and medical records. Henry: Next issue we get to is physical custody, and tell us what is meant by that Alyssa Alisa: Well physical custody means who actually has possession of the children; I veer away from the use of physical custody because it sounds so possessive essentially where the children are living primarily, these days I like to focus more on a good parenting schedule than actual physical custody Henry: I think an interesting note to our viewers is every divorce needs legal custody, but there is no requirement about any ruling on physical custody, so we can have a parenting plan where certain days the children are with mom or dad without saying anything about physical custody or we can even use words such as primary residence, with one parent during the school year and summer, and we can give all types of solutions for equal ability to spend time with their children. Alisa: And that’s really important in my practice where the children are involved, they are not possessions, don’t get hung up on labels, give up that fight, just focus on what schedule is good for your children and what schedule is going to be best for them. |
