In this custody agreement mom and dad share the responsibility of making choices for their children. Physical and legal matters can be covered under a joint child custody agreement.

The parent with legal custody gets to make all the decisions of a child’s life including health-doctor, Education-school, Welfare of said child. The parent who had physical custody is the one where the child will be living most of the time.

Both parents can have joint custody in these two areas. Mom or dad may have the child monday through friday. The parents may split the time during the week. This has to be thought through very carefully. You do not want to make it tough for the child while in school. Staying at a parents house during part of the week that is quite a ways away from the child’s school will make it tough on the that child and can affect the school work being done.

Now if the parents have split up and are both still in the same school district this would not be a problem.

How do you about obtaining the joint child custody result? The parents may differ on this.

The easiest way is to come to an agreement between the two parents themselves. This will save each parent a significant amount of money in terms of lawyer’s fees and court costs.

Another alternative is to let a judge or master decide. Joint child custody may be granted depending on the parents. He also may rule that one parent would be better for the child to stay with. This is most certainly true in the case of mental and physical abuse to the child by one of the parents.

The state in which you reside needs to be taken into acccount. There are states that are no fault states as is the case in Pennsylvania.

No matter how many affairs your spouse has had, it won’t matter. In a no fault state you can cheat as much as you want and the courts will never take that into consideration when it comes time to determine whether or not joint child custody is viable plan.

The best thing you can do to prepare yourself and to increase your chances of joint child custody is to get as much information and some proven strategies that will work in you favor.

There are different paths that can be taken through this process.  You can go for physical custody, joint custody, sole physical custody or variations of each.  These variations can differ from state to state.  There are different variations when it comes to the laws of Michigan child custody.

No matter what what you decide to do, always consider the welfare of the children.  Both parents are responsible for the welfare and support of the children.  Wether it be monitery or other means.

Support payments that are to be made by either parent need to made on time.  If you get behind, these payments can be taken directly from your wages or taken from your income tax returns.

For more information on the laws of Michigan child custody you can visit the linked text here for Michigan child custody laws.

The following are legal terms used in your  child custody questions.  This should make it clearer what your lawyer is talking about.

Legal Custody
The parent with legal custody has the right to make all decisions regarding the well being, daily decisions, and schooling of the child. Physical Custody – This is which parent has the right to be with the child or children physically

Sole Legal Custody
When one parent is awarded sole legal custody. The parent with sole legal custody gets to make all the decisions regarding the child’s life. The other parent that does not have sole legal custody is left out.
Sole Physical Custody
One parent, the one with sole physical custody, gets to be with the child. the other parent does not get to be with the child.  The parent that does not get to be with the child is usually excluded due to some kind of abuse.

Joint Legal Custody
Both parents have the right to be with the child. Both parents have input as to the welfare and well being of the child or children.  They can both make decisions regarding the kids life.

I hope these answers to you child custody questions have given you a clearer understanding to the legal terms and what they mean.

Child custody is used in the courts of law to define which parent  is the legal guardian of a child under the age of 18. The guardianship comes into play under certain circumstances. These are parents that get a divorce or have never gotten married. There is also the ones that are gay or transgendered. The best interests of the child and custody of that child, in my humble opinion, is the most difficult and the most important of all the issues in a divorce proceeding.

You have to consider that the court will always put the best interests of the children first.  It is in the best interest of the children for the parents to have joint legal and physical custody.  When you go to court make sure your lawyer knows that you want both.  This way you have the legal right to make decisions about your child’s life and can have them physically stay with you.

For more information on the two important words, child and custody just click on the linked text.  Its your child to and you should have child custody.

If both parents of the child or children can agree on custody arrangements the court will just have to approve these arrangements. Unless there is a history of some kind of abuse or other extenuating circumstances you should have no trouble with the court approving your arrangement.

One tip I can tell you is not to get into a fight in court about what one parent said or the other parent said.  The courts do not like this at all.  As parents you are supposed to have the childs best interests at the forefront of everything.

Go here for more Child Custody Questions.