“There are two kinds of custody . . . The first kind is legal custody. Legal custody gives a parent the authority to make decisions about the child’s education, religious upbringing, medical treatment, and other legal decisions. One parent can have the right to make these legal decisions alone. This is called “sole” legal custody. Or both parents could make these legal decisions on their own, with or without the other parent’s agreement. This is called “joint” legal custody. Joint legal custody may be hard for parents if they don’t agree or communicate well with the other parent about their children.”
“The second kind of custody is physical custody. Physical custody gives a parent the authority to live with the children. The child’s primary place of residence may be with one parent. This is called “sole” physical custody. Or the children may live with both parents for significant periods of time. This is called “joint” physical custody.”
“If the children live with one parent most of the time, then the other parent will have the right to spend time with the children on a regular basis. The court generally calls this time “visitation.” The parent who has the right to visitation may spend a little or a lot of time with the children. A parent can ask the court for “reasonable” visitation which means that parent and the other parent will work it out themselves or the court will decide what is reasonable after listening to the parents. If a parent thinks that the there are reasons why the other parent’s time with the children should be limited or he/she feels that the other parent should not be alone with the children, instead of “reasonable” visitation the parent can ask the court to place restrictions. Some possible restrictions are: no overnights, 24 hours notice by telephone before a visit, no drinking alcohol before or during the other parent’s time with the children, supervised visitation where someone of his/her choice is present during the visitation, or a requirement that the other parent not remove the children from the city, county, or state. If a parent thinks that the other’s visits should be monitored or supervised, that parent will need to decide who will be the supervisor. For example, the supervisor could be a good friend, a teacher, someone from your church or community group.”
[California Family Law Basics [certain citations omitted]]
