Legal Question in Family Law in Washington

Re: family law - child custody

No. Joint custody and physical custody are terms that are not used in Washington any more.

The words crop up in federal areas, such as income taxes, that require a designation of custody for tax purposes.

Washington requires one parent to be designated the primary residential parent, and the other parent to be the non-primary residential parent.

Washington Courts have a statute that allows a judge to require the child to change residences frequently. This statute also has other requirements, but the net result is that the parents, if they agree, can implement something that looks a great deal like joint custody.

Frankly, depending on the parents and the child, it's not a bad idea. Children are not prizes to be won in a divorce, and the more each parent does to foster a decent relationship with the other parent, the better the situation is for the child whose parents are divorcing. In some cases, anyway. There are other cases where this would be totally inappropriate.

I could go on for days about this.

I hope this answers your question.

Powell