Types of Child Custody in Georgia

Child custody in divorce cases refer to issues related to who the child would live with, who will take decisions on behalf of child, who would spend time with him etc. Child custody disputes are very ugly and cause a lot of strain on everybody involved. The family court of Georgia decides on custody issues with best interest of child as supreme factor.

Custody of a child involves two parts, legal custody and physical custody. Physical custody determines who the child would live with. Legal custody gives parent right to make vital decisions for child’s benefit. These decisions include long range plans like discipline, education, medical care (non emergency), and religion to be followed etc. The parent who enjoys physical custody of child is given right to decide on daily requirements of child.

Types of Custody

• Temporary custody – when a couple decides to get divorced they need to consider where their child would stay during the course of divorce and to legalize the stand they take, a request for trial and temporary custody has to be filed in Georgia court. The custody is awarded for a period ending when case comes to trail.
• Sole custody – both legal and physical custody of child is awarded to one parent. The child has no contact with the other parent and has only one primary residence.
• Split custody – in divorce cases involving more than one child, say for example two children, each parent is given both legal as well as physical custody (sole custody) of one child. This kind of ruling usually is initiated by preference stated by child and age of child.
• Joint custody – can be of three types. In joint legal custody both parents are equally involved in bringing up the child and have equal rights in deciding about child’s education, religion, health care discipline etc, but child lives with custodial parent. In shared physical custody, child has two homes; he lives in each home by turns and spends about thirty percent of time with one of the parent. There can be combinations of joint legal custody and shared physical custody. There are cases where child has one primary residence but parents take turns in staying with child. Joint custody agreements are scrutinized very carefully by Georgia family court. If parents are not civil to each other and hence are unable to come to agreements with regard to even common issues like school, religion etc, court has the right to cancel the agreement.

The child custody rulings primarily are done with best interest of child. The court holds discretionary power in this ruling and can veto an agreement submitted by parents, if it is found to be compromising the welfare of child involved.