As per the law, Child Custody in Virginia, a parent who hold the legal custody of a children tends to have a right and obligation to make participation in every decision related to the upbringing of a child. In this context, this right is dedicated towards the parents. Therefore, the parent who have a legal custody have the authority to participate in major decisions such as medical care, education, religion, school, college and perhaps where the child should live. In most of the cases, the court awards a joint legal custody to both of the parents. On the other hand, there are many cases where there is a sole legal custody where a parent consents to this unusual arrangement or he or she is found to be abusive or incarcerated.
According to the law, Child Custody in Virginia, the court also have authority to award sole legal custody to one of the parent in a situation where parents are unable to work together to make decisions about the welfare of the child. Therefore, the law, Child Custody in Virginia allow the court to decide which parent should manage the lives of the people and on the other hand, the court is also responsible to announce which parent should not participate in the decisions. It has been observed that typically, the courts are loathe to award the sole legal custody to one of the parent. As they prefer to award the joint custody since it is always beneficial to involve both of the parents in the process of a decision making regarding what is in the best interest of a child.
The law, Child Custody in Virginia states that in a case when the parents are able to share the legal custody then they have all equal right to make contribution in the upbringing of a child such as what is beneficial for a child. On the other hand, if one of the parent is having a legal custody then he or she has the authority to decide related to how the child should be raised even in a case when the child is primarily living with another parent.
In this sense, physical custody of a child refers to a situation when the child is primarily living with the parent who is also having legal custody of such child. In addition to that, physical custody can be further divided into many types such as shared custody, primary custody and sole custody as per the law, Child Custody in Virginia. Shared physical custody refers to a situation where both of the parents have been awarded a significant amount of time to spend with such child. Moreover, primary physical custody refers to a situation when one of the parent has been awarded to spend large amount of time with that child while other parent is restricted to spent short amount of time with such child. On the other hand, sole physical custody refers to a situation where one of the parent is granted full custody while other parent is restricted from the custody due to his or her abusive behaviour.