Legal Question in Family Law in California

Custody is an unspecific term that means different things in different contexts and generally refers to some form of legal or physical control over another person. So a person can be in police custody, or a parent my have part time physical and full joint legal custody over a child, or a child taken out of an abusive home may be put in temporary custody of Protective Services, etc. Guardianship is a formal legal proceeding and relationship in which an adult is given permanent or at least semi-permanent responsibility for and control over a minor on a level that has much in common with, but a few significant differences from, adoption. The two most significant differences that come to my mind are: 1. in an appropriate case a guardianship can be terminated or transferred to another guardian much more easily than an adoption; and 2. a ward (the person under the guardianship of another) does not acquire intestate succession rights as an heir of the guardian.

A guardianship is a procedure that can give custody of a minor child to a non-parent. Custody is the right of an adult to care for a child until they become an adult. Unless, there is another document (e.g. judgment of paternity, divorce, guardianship, adoption etc.) Custody is presumed to be shared between the parents of the child as listed on the birth certificate.