Potential clients often contact me telling me that they
want to fight for sole custody or joint custody of their children. Often, after I explain to them how Missouri
defines child custody, they either change their goals or realize that the
label, in some cases, is not nearly as important as the details.
So how does the state of Missouri
look at custody? First, there are two components in Missouri to child
custody: legal custody and physical
custody.
In the
last article we discussed Legal Custody, now I will give a brief overview of
Physical Custody.
Physical
custody deals with where the child actually “resides” and what specific days
and times the children are with each parent. Joint physical custody may mean
that the parents have equal parenting time but that is not always the case. A parent that has sole physical custody is
very unlikely to have the child 100% of the time to the exclusion of the other
parent.
Because
Missouri favors joint custody, the most common arrangement is joint physical
custody, with one parent being designated the “residential parent”. The children likely attend school in the
district the residential parent resides in, and often the residential parent
receives child support from the other parent.
The children may spend up to 50% of the time with the non-residential
parent.
A sole
physical custody situation is one where a court may determine that it is in the
child’s best interests that one parent’s time with the child be
restricted. This may be due to abuse,
drug or alcohol use or an unsuitable living situation. It is also possible that that parent’s
custody time may be supervised as well, either by court staff or someone
designated by the parties or the court.
In a situation where one parent has gone for a long time without seeing
the children, that parent’s time may be also be temporarily restricted as that
parent and child get reacquainted with each other.
For questions about child custody contact The Law Office of Barbara Graham or call us at 314-725-7600.
