Joint Custody Virginia Joint Legal Custody VA Fairfax Lawyer

Physical custody is when the parent resides with his or her child at the same home and also has the legal right to make the decisions regarding the welfare of the child. Joint physical custody is one of three types of physical custody. In the state of Virginia, joint physical custody means that the mother of the child has custody for not less than 90 days a year and the father of the child also has custody for days that do not get less than 90 a year. Overall, both parents have equal custody of their child.

Under the law of the state of Virginia, the judges are required to rule in the best interest of the child and not in favor of the emotional needs and desires of the guardian.

If the guardians of the child do not come to a mutual agreement regarding minor guardianship, then the guardians must present the case to a judge in the Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court.

The guardians can also avoid having to go to the Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court for the case by having their attorneys work out guardianship matters.

Joint care is brilliant for the minor due to having both the father and the mother equally involved in the juvenile’s life. When the parents file for divorce in the Circuit Court of Virginia, a guardianship form is filled and filed along with the other divorce legal documents. The caretakers fill the documents with information regarding the minor and both caretakers such as the juvenile’s age, each parent’s age, the juvenile’s and parent’s physical and emotional conditions and the financial stability of each caretaker. The form is then filed with the clerk of the court and a court hearing is waited upon.

Usually, parents attempt to gain joint care considering it best benefits the juvenile’s physical and mental state. A way that the parents can achieve this is the maintenance of the family home and purchase a nearby apartment, the minor stays in the family home while each parent switch places in the time of their custody. This ensures that the minor grows up in the same home and doesn’t have to move from home to home in regard to his or her parent’s custodial schedule, as well as both the parents will be able to live their own individual lives.
The amount of the child support payments will be less in joint physical guardianship than of sole physical guardianship, considering that both parents have almost equal amount of time in taking care of the child.

The Virginia court prefers to divide the custodial time for both the father and the mother equally. In which “equally” means that the parents have regular and continues contact, and not in the context that the mother gets guardianship of the child for six continues months and the father having guardianship for the rest of the six months of the year. An agreement of switching guardianship every two weeks is a more reasonable resolution.

If you need a Virginia Child Custody lawyer to help you with your minor guardianship case in Virginia, call us at 888-437-7747. Our Virginia Child Custody attorneys can help you. C