Joint legal custody means both parents share the right to make the major decisions about their child, though a Georgia judge can give one parent the final say when they cannot agree.
What the Statute Says
Under OCGA 19-9-6(5), joint legal custody means “both parents have equal rights and responsibilities for major decisions concerning the child, including the child’s education, health care, extracurricular activities, and religious training.” The same definition lets the judge “designate one parent to have sole power to make certain decisions while both parents retain equal rights and responsibilities for other decisions.”
Legal Custody Is Not Physical Custody
Legal custody is about decisions. Physical custody is about where the child lives. Joint custody can mean joint legal custody, joint physical custody, or both, and the judge “may order joint legal custody without ordering joint physical custody.” OCGA 19-9-6(4). Joint physical custody gives the child “substantially equal time and contact with both parents.” OCGA 19-9-6(6). By contrast, a parent awarded sole custody makes the major decisions alone unless the order says otherwise. OCGA 19-9-6(11).
Who Breaks a Tie
Unless the court orders or the parents agree otherwise, a parenting plan must allocate decisions about the child’s education, health, extracurricular activities, and religious upbringing, and if the parents agree to decide them jointly, it must say “how to resolve a situation in which the parents disagree on resolution.” OCGA 19-9-1(b)(2)(E).
In Frazier v. Frazier, 280 Ga. 687 (2006), the parents shared legal and physical custody. The trial court gave the mother the final say on religion and health and the father the final say on education and extracurricular activities. The Georgia Supreme Court upheld the split, holding that the statute “clearly vests in the trial court discretion to decide which parent should be empowered to make final decisions where the parents are unable to agree.”
Our posts on education, medical care, religion, and extracurricular activities explain how each of those decisions works.
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This post is a quick overview of the law and is not intended as legal advice. Please feel free to contact our office for a consultation if you have questions about this or any other legal aspects regarding your case!