In today’s society of equality, more and more parents are choosing joint custody, over the traditional single custodial parenting. It can be a complicated mess, which requires lawyers and litigation to resolve, but with some standard knowledge up front, it can ease the burden to understanding things like joint custody child support.

Traditional Child Support Methodology
Traditional child support was governed by the Child Support Standards Act (CSSA). This however, only handles the cases of single parent custody, which requires that one parent take physical and legal custody of the child for approximately 80% of the year. The other parent is awarded visitation for approximately 20% of the year, including special cases. This also states that the non-custodial parent will be required to pay child support to the custodial parent depending upon income and several other factors, usually specific to the state the child is a permanent residence of.

What Is Joint Custody?
Joint custody, however, is not handled by the CSSA, as it requires litigation to come to terms between the two parents, and it is necessary to understanding the permutations that could take place, as there is two different kinds of joint custody.

Legal Custody
The first is legal custody, in which both parents have access to all of the childs records and have equal rights in the decision-making for the child’s future welfare. This includes such things as schooling, religion, future financing, and basic welfare decisions.

Physical Custody
The second is physical custody, which includes the actual lodging and care of the child. This is an area that can become increasingly complicated due to distances between parents, school, and other factors. It requires a court-ordered custody schedule called a parenting plan. This is a legal document drawn up between the parents stating when each will be responsible for the child, including what expenses will be involved in order to make sure it’s fair.

Custodial Parenting
In some cases, both legal and physical custody can be awarded to both parents, however there is another variation, which allows for joint legal custody, but only a single parent with physical custody. This is typically decided on the grounds of whether both or only one parent is capable of taking custody of the child. It involves various checks including employment, income, housing, and many factors specific to the parents residential state.

Child Support
In the case that only one parent is awarded physical custody, the non-custodial parent will likely be required to pay child support. And in some cases, even if both parents are deemed fit to take custody, one of the parents may still be required to pay a small amount of child support due to a discrepancy in income or disability.

After all has been taken into consideration, joint custody isn’t as complex as it may seem to be. With the right knowledge, it can be a matter or sorting out the finer details.

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