Legal Question in Family Law in California

How does Child Custody work IF....

I have a trial date of 6/5/09 for child custody. I believe everything is in my favor to settle for 50/50 custody. However, I want control of my duaghter's main living conditions, school she attends and so on. How do I work a deal so the mother thinks it's fair at 50/50 and I still ''control'' the sitiuation? Is it even possible to ''control'' the situation at 50/50 or do I need to have 51/49 or greater? Since I know there are things like sole physical custody and visitation, so it gets a bit tricky..... I would like a real answer on this question since my last question was never answered; basically saying ''it's too complex to answer on here.'' Come on please just a real response would be nice. Thank you


Asked on 4/26/09, 6:37 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Colin Greene Russakow, Greene & Tan, LLP

Re: How does Child Custody work IF....

If you and the mother have even an 80/20 schedule, you'll need some serious reason why you don't have joint legal custody. Joint legal custody means shared decision making, not one or the other of you having "control." Then, if there are issues like where should your daughter go to school and you and the mother can't agree, you can seek a court order, making your arguments for why it should be the school you choose. On a 50/50 schedule or anything close to it, that is typically only possible where the parents reside relatively close together, so if public school, most likely the decision will be the better school district. If it's a private school issue, I'm out of space to further respond, but will if you follow up.

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Answered on 4/27/09, 7:10 pm


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