Legal Question in Family Law in California
joint custody
Do you have to live close together to get joint custody?
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: joint custody
Thank you for your question. There are two types of custody, legal and physical. Legal custody has to do with the major life decisions that need to be made, such as schools, medical treatment, residence. Physical custody is where the child actually lives. Normally in California the parents will share joint legal custody, regardless of the distance between their homes.
Physical custody depends on many different factors, distance could be one of them. Clearly, the closer you live the easier it will be to have an alternating week on/week off schedule. But there are many more factors than geographical distance.
I hope this answers your question.
Re: joint custody
usually within 35 miles