JOINT LEGAL CUSTODY - FAMILY COURT OR SUPREME COURT


     Custody

Legal custody is the right to a say in the care and upbringing of a child.  It may be sole or joint.  Joint legal custody is when both parents have a say in the care and upbringing of their child.  The essential characteristic of joint legal custody is ongoing shared legal responsibility and joint control over a child's upbringing by parents who live apart. It involves mutual consultation and joint decision making by the parents concerning major issues such as the medical care, education, religious upbringing and discipline of their child. The highest Court in the State of New York (Court of Appeals) held that judicial authority to make an award of joint custody could be implied from the language of D.R.L. § 240.  In the same decision, the court held that joint custody is appropriate in cases involving ''relatively stable, amicable parents behaving in a mature civilized fashion, and can be properly awarded when the relationship between the parties is not so acrimonious that they would be incapable of working together when raising their child.

Joint custody may be awarded if the parties are successfully working together to promote their child's best interests, even if they experience a few minor skirmishes doing so.  

Additionally, the joint decision-making authority of parents who share custody may be limited to designated issues where their animosity does not preclude joint decisions on all issues (i.e.: health, education, religion, etc.). When joint custodial parents are deadlocked in a dispute over what is in their child's best interests, a court presented with the task of resolving the dispute may decline to make the decision for the parties and instead grant decision-making authority to one of the parents

 This is not legal advice and should not be viewed as such.  No advice is given until there has been an actual consultation with the attorney.  The statements herein are not advice and no one should act according to such until they have obtained the oral advice of an attorney with regards to these and all legal matters.