What Is Joint Legal Decision-Making Authority and How Can It Help Me?

Oftentimes when parents split one of the most hotly contested issues is Parenting Time. There are many ways to approach the matter, including seeking sole legal decision-making authority. Yet, many parents choose to opt for joint legal decision-making authority, which, in many instances, supports the best interests of all parties involved. But what, exactly is joint legal decision-making authority and how can it be beneficial to you and your child? Hopefully this article will help answer that question.

Legal legal decision-making authority and physical legal decision-making authority are the two types of joint legal decision-making authority. In a true joint legal decision-making authority arrangement, parents share equal in a child’s legal and physical legal decision-making authority. This means that each parent participates equally in making life-decisions for the child and they also share equally in physical time spent with the child. However, not every joint legal decision-making authority arrangement will be mirror this setup. In fact, pure joint legal decision-making authority may be detrimental to a child’s routine and emotional well-being, as well as raise scheduling problems.

Instead, many parents may be left with only joint physical legal decision-making authority or joint legal legal decision-making authority. Joint legal is when each parent shares equally in a child’s long-term life decisions. This can include education and healthcare decisions. A parent can share legal legal decision-making authority of a child and not have physical legal decision-making authority at all. On the flip side, physical legal decision-making authority is when a parent has the child living with him or her. Again, a parent can have joint physical legal decision-making authority, but maybe not joint legal legal decision-making authority.

Depending on the circumstances, any joint legal decision-making authority arrangement can be beneficial to both a child and his or her parents. Having joint legal legal decision-making authority but sole physical legal decision-making authority, for example, allows a child to remain in a stable household while allowing both parents to remain active in his or her upbringing. Since each scenario is unique, it may be a good idea to consider speaking with an experienced Tucson family law attorney to determine which Parenting Time arrangement may be best for you and your child.

Source: FindLaw, “Joint Legal Decision-Making Authority,” accessed on Oct. 20, 2014