What is the difference between joint and sole custody?
Many people are under the misconception that joint custody means that you will each have the children half of the time. This concept is known as shared custody and is not what joint custody means. Joint custody means that both parents have an equal say in the major decisions effecting your children’s lives. Major decisions are defined as religious, educational and health care issues. The children will still typically live with one parent on a primary basis. This parent will be known as the residential custodian. If there is a dispute with regard to joint custody, the parties must first consult with a mediator to resolve the dispute. In the event the dispute is not resolved, the court will then resolve the issue.
Legal custody refers to the decision making roles of the parents. Joint legal custody means that both parents work together to make significant decisions regarding their children. Sole legal custody means that only one parent makes the significant decisions in raising the children. If the parents have joint legal custody and cannot agree on a particular matter, usually the person with primary physical custody will prevail.
“Custody” as it is often referred to by law people (and by lawyers as a generic term) in Texas is really comprised of several categories of “conservatorship.” There are three basic types of conservatorship with several sub-categories provided for within each. These categories are actually names or labels for a particular set of rights and obligations imposed on an adult — normally the parent of a child — towards a child and imposed by a court order or divorce decree. The basic starting point for understanding conservatorship starts with the categories “sole managing conservatorship” and “sole possessory conservatorship.” They are basically the sides to a single coin and it is rare, if ever, you will find one without the other in the context of a typical divorce. Although they are far more rare since the advent of “joint managing conservatorship,” both still exist not only in existing decrees and orders, but also in new orders and decrees. Sole Managing Conservatorship: Sole managing
