Full Answer
Legal custody is the right and responsibility to make major decisions about the child's education, healthcare, and religion. Most courts award joint legal custody, requiring both parents to consult on major decisions.
Physical custody is the day-to-day living arrangement. It can be primarily with one parent (sole physical custody), shared roughly equally between both (joint physical custody), or some intermediate split. The parenting-time schedule is usually more important to families than the legal label.
Sole legal custody is reserved for cases where one parent is unfit, absent, abusive, or where the parents simply cannot communicate effectively enough to share decision-making.
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