What is the difference between “Legal Custody” and “Physical Custody”?

By Pansy Moore-Shrier

 

Often, when a couple is going through a divorce (or a paternity case, if the parents were never married to each other) and children are involved, each parent is concerned with “custody.” There are, however, two types of custody: legal custody and physical custody. Legal custody of a child refers to the ability to participate in making major decisions on behalf of a child.

In Oklahoma, a parent having legal custody of a child has the right to participate in making decisions on the following topics:

1. Elective medical, dental, psychological, or other health care for the child.

2. Summer camps and activities for the child to attend.

3. Fashion and manner in which the child is to be disciplined.

4. Education decisions, including school the child will attend and the classes the child will take.

5. Extent of travel by the child away from home, including purpose, duration, mode of travel, chaperones, etc.

6. Religious upbringing of the child, including church schools and/or classes.

7. Organized recreational and extracurricular activities, including athletics in which the child shall participate.

8. Any other areas requiring decisions affecting the growth and development of the child.

Physical custody refers to the physical time that a child spends with the parent. Often, people will call this “visitation” or even “parenting time.” The legal system is generally moving away from calling physical time with a child “visitation”, because it’s a bit undermining of a parent-child relationship to say that a parent is exercising “visitation” with his/her own child. [Disclaimer: Nothing contained herein is intended to be legal advice or to create an attorney-client relationship. Any information contained herein is for general information purposes only.]

By Pansy Moore-Shrier
pansy@mstulsalaw.com
www.mstulsalaw.com
624 South Boston Avenue, Ste. 1070 Tulsa, OK 74119
PH 918-592-3001
FX 918-794-7149