Can a parent obtain full custody of the children if they fear for the child’s safety?
Full Question:
I gave up on my marriage after it turned miserable due to my husband being an abusive alcoholic. Now that I filed for divorce, I want to make sure that I get the custody of my children. We have two kids from our marriage aged 5 and 2 years old. Does the law permit me to get exclusive custody of my children because he is an alcoholic?
11/16/2016 |
Category: Divorce » Child Custody |
State: California |
#26818
Answer:
- the health, safety, and welfare of children, and
- the benefits children get from frequent contact with both parents.
Custody consists of both legal custody and physical custody. The former refers to a parent’s authority to participate in major decisions affecting a child’s health, education, and welfare and the latter refers to the child’s physical presence with a parent. Joint physical custody means that each parent has significant periods of physical custody, but not necessarily an equal amount of time with the child. A judge awarding joint legal custody may or may not also order joint physical custody, and parents may agree to joint legal custody without agreeing to equal, or even approximately equal, physical custody.
The judges are especially cautious while deciding the custody of a child when a parent is a convict, a sexual offender, a drug addict or an alcoholic. If the court is convinced that giving custody to the parent with a such a history jeopardizes the safety, they may grant full legal and physical custody to the other parent. The custody of a child is always decided on a case to case basis.
