Legal Question in Family Law in California

Full custody is not a legal term. In California there are two types of custody; legal and physical.

Legal = who makes decisions regarding school, health religion etc

Physical = who child lives with most of the time. Most cases end up being joint legal and physical custody. There are a few rare situations where the court feels it is in the best interests of the child to award one of the parents sole legal and physical custody. This can be as a result of domestic violence, substance abuse, neglect or most common when the parents live so far away from each other (e.g. east and west coast) that it is impractical to have both parents deciding what school to attend, which doctor to use etc.

Unless, you fall into the above situation, the court will look at you and the mother's work schedule, the current custody arrangement, how far apart you live from each other etc; and try to devise a custody plan that will allow the child frequent and continuing contact with both parents.