Who makes your child’s medical decisions after a Georgia divorce depends on your custody order, except in an emergency, when the parent who has the child usually decides.
What the Statutes Say
Health care is one of the major decisions OCGA 19-9-6(5) places in legal custody, and our post on joint legal custody explains how a judge can give one parent the final say. Day-to-day matters work differently. Unless the court orders otherwise, a parenting plan must recognize that “a parent with physical custody will make day-to-day decisions and emergency decisions while the child is residing with such parent.” OCGA 19-9-1(b)(1)(C). The plan must also give both parents access to the child’s records, including health records. OCGA 19-9-1(b)(1)(D).
Examples
For example, in Williams v. Silvers, 367 Ga. App. 877 (2023), the mother had the final say on non-emergency health care. The father admitted refusing to give one of the children her prescribed medication because he thought it made her too sleepy. Even though the same ruling made the father the primary physical custodian, the Court of Appeals held that the trial court abused its discretion in declining to find him in contempt, and sent that claim back.
Similarly, in Pineres v. George, 284 Ga. 483 (2008), a trial court ruling on contempt motions handed final decision-making authority over a son’s health care to the parents’ co-parenting counselor. The Georgia Supreme Court reversed that part of the order, holding that the trial court “improperly modified the parties’ divorce decree.”
So whoever holds the final say on health care keeps it until the custody order itself is changed. Who pays the bills is a separate question, covered in our post on who pays medical bills after a Georgia divorce.
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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!