Full Custody | Piscataway Family Law
How Am I Awarded Full Custody?
This is a question I get a lot. There is no such thing as full custody, but this is an expression I hear frequently from clients. There are two kinds of custody, legal custody and physical custody. Legal custody is the right of a parent to make major decisions in a child’s life, such as medical care, education, religious upbringing.
Physical Custody
Physical custody is who has the right to make the day-to-day decisions for the child, such as when they go to bed, when they do their homework, when they can play outside. Basically you have physical custody of the child when the child is with you, when you have your parenting time.
Legal Custody
Generally both parents get legal custody unless there is a compelling reason that the parent is not able to exercise legal custody. This most often occurs when one parent has a severe mental illness or substance abuse problem that impairs his or her ability to parent. So when we talk about custody, keep in mind there are two different kind of custody.