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New
York adheres to the doctrine of doing what is in the best interests of
the child. Accordingly, the judge will determine what is in the best interests
of the child and then award custody pursuant to that determination. There
are two aspects of custody: legal custody and physical custody.
Legal
custody concerns the right of the parent to make decisions regarding the
child in such matters as education, medical care, and religion. Legal
custody can be given to one or both parents.
Physical
custody relates to which of the parents lives with the child. In
most situations, only one parent will get physical custody. Judges
prefer not to give joint physical custody, because they believe that a
child should have only one home and that it is difficult to have a child
reside with each parent half of the time.
The
parent who does not get physical custody will usually get visitation
rights. Visitation
can be ordered in terms of reasonable rights of visitation or according
to a specified schedule of visitation. Also, note that the parent
that does not get custody pays child support. For further information,
see our section on Child Support.
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