Tulsa Family Law: Making Sense of Sole and Joint Custody
A parent who has questions about sole custody versus joint custody. My name is Carl Burkett. I’m an attorney in Tulsa who deals with family law and I’d like to help you answer those questions. The difference between sole custody and joint custody is a little bit more complicated than most people realize. Sole custody is when one parent has the child the majority of the time while the other parent has visitation on weekends and every other holiday.
Joint custody is a little bit more different than that. We can have joint physical custody or joint legal custody. When you get joint legal custody that means that each parent has the same rights to make decisions for the child. Not the minor every day you know when to brush their teeth or you know how long to sit in timeout but the major ones. Major medical, dental, religion, and education. The things that impact and shape a child’s life.
Exploring Different Custody Arrangements
Those are the decisions that parents in a joint custody plan have to make together. Now joint custody does not necessarily mean that you will have to share the children 50-50 time. That’s why the difference between joint legal and joint physical custody. You can have joint legal with the same parental rights but a lot of times situations just don’t work out where parents can actually take care of their children half of the time. You can still have a joint custody plan that doesn’t split time evenly.
There are different ways that a custody arrangement or visitation arrangement can be set up. Splitting during the middle of the week or I’ve had cases before where there was a joint parenting plan put in place but one parent was the primary physical custodian and the other parent still had the children on every other weekend and splitting the holidays. The point is that just because you don’t have your child equal time doesn’t mean that you don’t have equal rights under a joint parenting plan.
Get Help with Your Custody Case
Now as opposed to sole custody whoever has sole custody of the child they get to make those decisions. The major medical, major dental, the education, the extracurriculars. They still need to keep the other parent involved. They still need to make sure that the other parent is aware of the situation especially because of the financial burdens that go into the different decisions that are being made but in the sole custody situation only one parent gets to make those decisions. Different plans work for different co-parents. Every situation is different and unique but that’s why we do what we do and we’re here to help you out.
If this information was helpful or if you have any questions about custody arrangements, please feel free to reach out to a child custody lawyer in Tulsa for a low-cost initial strategy session. You can contact a family law attorney in Tulsa at MakeLawEasy.com or call 918-879-1681. My name is Carl Burkett with Wirth Law Office and I am here to help you navigate your custody case.
