Generally this still means one parent has primary custody, though the other parent may have the child more than the typical non-custodial parent with standard visitation in a case without shared custody. To whatever extent the court might order, the parties also share decision-making responsibilities, but usually one parent will still have a duty to support the children, though perhaps at significantly less than what the child support figure would normally be. (If the parents actually have the child or children equal amounts of time, then it may be that neither parent pays support.)
Many Tennessee judges strongly oppose joint custody, but legislation that took effect in 1996 (at TCA 36-6-101) now makes it difficult to prevent divorcing parents from agreeing on joint custody. Under the new law a court must approve a joint custody agreement unless the court finds clear and convincing evidence that joint custody is not in the child's best interests.
This only comes into play when the parties agree on joint custody and simply need the court's approval, but even this is a major change; many judges were so firmly opposed to joint custody agreements that if one parent thought the child should eat peas for dinner, and the other thought the child should eat beets instead, there would be no joint custody. (Despite the legislation in Tennessee and the trend toward increasing use of joint custody in other states, critics of joint custody remain even in places where you might not expect it, such as some father's rights groups, including a group calls Dads Against Discrimination -- DADS. To read their comments, click here.)
The new law will also apply in any case where two a divorced couple would like to try a joint custody arrangement after one of them has had sole custody.
What exactly is joint custody? It is the shared legal custody of a child, meaning the parents are supposed to consult with each other about things such as extracurricular activities, or what school the child will attend or medical care and both parents have authority to take the child in for medical care.
But generally speaking one parent still has primary physical custody of the child, and in case of any conflict regarding the child that parent is still the one who makes the ultimate decision. And generally speaking the parent having primary physical custody still gets child support... and can still move out of state without the approval of the court or of the other parent.
And conflicts are to be expected. After all, if the parents agreed on everything and got along well, they probably would have stayed married.
So what difference does joint custody make?
Perhaps very little from a legal perspective, but from a psychological perspective it can make a tremendous difference to both the child and the parent without primary physical custody. It tends to have everyone involved look at the situation somewhat differently, as if the child still has two parents, even though they may not be able to get along with each other, and that may make help children deal with the most traumatic event in their lives -- the divorce of their parents.
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