Child Custody

In Massachusetts, there are two main forms of child custody: legal custody and physical custody. "Legal custody" refers to a parent's participation in making major decisions about their child with regard to their religious, medical, emotional, educational and moral well-being. "Physical custody" refers to where a child resides and which parent does the routine caretaking and decision-making for the child. There is also the concept of "visitation" with a child, which refers to one parent spending time with a child while the other party has primary physical custody of that child, or "sole physical custody." Visitation can be supervised or unsupervised. It can be for just a few hours or for an entire weekend or longer. In some cases, a joint physical custody arrangement where each parent has roughly equal parenting time with the children may be appropriate.

The issue of child custody usually arises in divorce proceedings, but can arise in annulment proceedings, modification of a judgment of divorce or separation agreement, care and custody proceedings, and paternity suits. In general, child custody issues are determined on the standard of what arrangement is in the best interests of the child.