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Anne Arundel County: 7310 Ritchie Highway, Ste 910 Glen Burnie, Maryland 21061 (410) 760-7339
Baltimore City Office Meeting Location: 111 South Calvert Street, Ste 2700, Baltimore, Maryland 21202 (410) 685-7339
Baltimore County: 10451 Mill Run Circle, Ste 400, Owings Mills, Maryland 21136 (410) 363-7339
Howard County Office Meeting Location: 10480 Little Patuxent Parkway, Ste 400, Columbia, Maryland 21044 (410) 740-7339
Prince George County: 6301 Ivy Lane Suite 700, Greenbelt, Maryland 20770 (301) 474-7339
Legal Custody: Sole Legal Custody and Joint Legal Custody. Sole Legal Custody is where only the custodial parent has the right to make the decisions affecting health, education and welfare. Joint Legal Custody is where both parents share equally in decision affecting the health, education and welfare of the minor child.
Physical Custody is more interesting then legal Custody.
Physical Custody is where the child lives. Physical Custody is also broken down into two different categories. You have either Sole Physical Custody or Shared Physical Custody. Once a non custodial parent enjoys Shared Physical Custody it means two things (1) he/she has the child with them in excess of 128 over nights per year and (2) the child support obligation is affected by the overnights with the otherwise non custodial parent. You will find many people fight over the 128 overnights. In order for a non custodial parent to reach the 128 number they must establish it is in the child's best interest. The court looks at the factors in a case call Taylor v Taylor to help the judge make the difficult decisions on whether to order sole joint custody or shared physical custody.
Inside Tip:
You will find an endless number of fights on the issue of 128 overnights. Sometimes the fights are motivated by the belief that the child support will be reduced. Other times it is genuine desire to be with the minor child. Generally if you want to reach the 128 look to acquire every other weekend Thursday night to Monday morning and an additional over night per week. As such in any given 14 day period you have not less then 35.71%. Or if that is impractical then look to pick up the overnights in the summer and on holidays. You will actually need to sit down with a calendar and count over nights. Again you want 128 or 35% (they equal the same per year).
Who Has the Right to Custody: See Maryland Family Law Statute 5-203