Children count on their parents to make decisions for them about a variety of things. One of these is the medical care they need. When parents divorce, those medical decisions can become one of the primary areas of contention.
In a child custody case, legal custody is one of the terms that you’ll hear. This has to do with making decisions for the child. Those decisions include more than just medical decision-making powers. It includes education and other areas.
How is legal custody set up?
Legal custody is either full or joint. If one parent is granted full legal custody, they can make all the decisions related to the covered areas, including medical care, without having to consult the other parent.
If joint legal custody is granted, both parents have to share the decision-making powers. This usually means that the parents have to agree on things related to medical care. In some cases, the parents can each make decisions on their own about minor medical issues, but more serious matters must be discussed.
Generally, medical decision-making powers don’t have to do with emergency medical treatments. The parent who’s with the child when a medical emergency occurs, or the one who makes it to the child first, is likely the one who will make the immediate decisions.
Legal custody is set by either the court’s child custody order or the parenting plan, but that’s all that’s included. Anyone going through a divorce involving children should learn about what terms should be set for raising the children, which may be easier if they work with someone familiar with these matters.