Changing Child Custody From Joint to Sole in California

If you’re looking to change your child’s custody situation, the first step is understanding the different aspects of child custody in California. Most custody agreements center around legal custody and physical custody, which are generally treated separately (a parent can have legal custody but not physical or vice versa, although the second one is relatively rare).

Legal custody: Legal custody refers to a parent’s ability to make decisions about their child’s health, education, and welfare. This includes where the child will go to school, where the child will go to church (if at all), and where the child will receive medical care. It is expected that parents will share legal custody.

For one parent to obtain sole custody, the court will have to conclude that:

• The parents are unable to work together for the child’s benefit
• One parent is unfit
• One parent is incapable of making decisions for the child’s benefit
• It is in the child’s best interests for one parent to have sole legal custody

Physical custody: This refers to where the child spends their time. The parent with whom the child is residing at the time generally has the ability to make decisions about the child’s day-to-day life.

Joint custody means that the child lives roughly equally with both parents. If the child spends all or most nights at one parent’s house, that parent is considered the custodial or residential parent, although the other parent may have scheduled parenting time with the child. Sole custody means that the child lives exclusively with one parent, although the other parent may be entitled to supervised or unsupervised visits with the child.

Changing Child Custody

If you and your child’s other parent agree that you should have sole legal and/or physical custody, it is a relatively simple matter to amend the custody order. Your attorney will be happy to walk you through the process, prepare the paperwork, and submit it to the court.

However, if you are looking to go back to court to change your child’s custody situation, you should know that it is a very high bar for a court to order sole legal and physical custody for one parent if the other parent wishes to continue joint custody. The duty of the court is to act in the child’s best interest, and it is presumed that it is in the best interest of the child to have both parents involved in the child’s life.

Courts are not going to award sole custody to a parent who wants to legally cut the other parent out of the child’s life for personal reasons, or because one parent thinks it would be easier if they didn’t have to consider the other parent’s rights (even if that is the truth).

It is also unlikely that sole custody would be awarded to one parent over the other due to differences in parenting styles and values, unless one parent was actively harming the child. Again, this is a high bar; child custody will almost certainly not be stripped from an adequate parent even if an argument could be made that the other parent is “better.”

Obtaining Sole Custody

However, it is the unfortunate truth that some parents are indeed far less than adequate. If you can prove that the other parent’s presence in the child’s life is objectively detrimental, you may be able to have the court award you sole physical and/or legal custody. Keep in mind that even if you do obtain sole custody, the other parent may still be awarded supervised or unsupervised visitation, since visitation is (somewhat) separate from both legal and physical custody.

You will need to be prepared with solid evidence showing both that custody with the other parent is not in the child’s best interest, and that custody with you is in the child’s best interest. This could be because the other parent is unfit or incompetent, or because the other parent is abusive or neglectful.

What constitutes solid evidence in this kind of case is:

• Police reports
• Medical records
• Reports from teachers or school counselors
• Social services reports
• Witness testimony from people who are close to the situation

Stripping custody from a parent who wants it is a serious matter, and it needs to be taken seriously since you usually only get one shot at it. You need to work with attorneys who know the laws, who know the courts, and who know exactly what they need to show for the best chance of getting you and your child what you need.

Reach out to WGS Law today to schedule a Zoom call so that you can explore your options. We’ll be glad to walk you through what you need to know if you’re looking to change your joint child custody orders to sole custody.