Legal Question in Family Law in Maryland

It all depends on the marital status of the parents. Married parents have joint custody of their children.

You must distinguish between legal custody and residential or physical custody. Legal custody is the right of parents to make important decisions about the children, such as schooling, health care, and financial decisions. A parent who has legal custody has the right to access school and health care records. In a divorce or child custody proceeding, a court has discretion to award joint legal custody or sole custody to either parent, but the modern trend is certainly toward joint custody absent some compelling reason to deny that to one of the parents. Residential or physical custody is the right to have the child live under the direct day to day supervision of a parent. Because of logistics, this is usually awarded to one parent, with the other parent having visitation rights, although in some circumstances the parents agree to share physical custody. This results in the child having to move back and forth in accordance with the custody schedule, which is obvious hard on the child, so usually it only works when the parents live near one another. All custody decisions by a judge must be based on what is in the best interests of the child, not the desires of the parents.