Overview of Custody Orders
Custody orders in Connecticut are based upon the best interests of the child involved. Parents can reach their own agreements about custody and visitation as long as their agreement serves the child’s best interests. What the best interests of the child standard means is discussed in detail below.
Before reaching a custody agreement on your own, it is important to understand what you are agreeing to. When a court enters a custody order, whether by agreement of the parents or based upon the court’s own decision, parents must follow that order or face consequences imposed by the judge.
Physical Versus Legal Custody
Physical Custody
Physical custody means that the parent has the right to “physically” live with the child. In other words, which parent has physical custody determines where the child will live. A situation where the child lives primarily with one parent and has visitation with the other parent, is a “sole physical custody arrangement. When the child spends a significant amount of time living at each parent’s home, even if the amount is not equal, it is considered a “joint custody” plan. An example of a joint custody relationship is where the child spends four nights per week at one parent’s house and three nights per week at the other parent’s house.
Legal Custody
Legal custody means that the parent has the power to make major decisions regarding the child’s welfare, including educational, medical and religious. Connecticut courts generally award joint legal custody, meaning both parents share this decision-making power. Even where one parent is awarded sole physical custody of the child, Connecticut courts prefer joint legal custody unless there are circumstances making it nearly impossible to share joint legal custody, such as abuse.
Can Parents Make Their Own Custody Agreements?
In Connecticut, parents can reach their own custody agreements outside of court - with or without the help of an attorney. However, a court will still evaluate the custody agreement reached by the parents to make sure that the arrangement serves the best interests of the child. For more information on what “the best interests of the child” standard means, see Best Interest of the Child Standard in Connecticut, by Connecticut Judicial Branch Law Libraries.
How Do Courts Decide Custody in Connecticut?
Best Interests of the Child Factors
In determining what kind of custody arrangement would be in a child’s best interests, Connecticut courts consider a number of factors, including:
- the child’s temperament and needs
- each parent’s ability to understand and meet the needs of the child
- each parent’s ability to be actively involved in the child’s life
- each parent’s willingness to encourage the relationship of the child with the other parent
- the child’s past and current relationship with each parent
- the stability of each parent’s residence
- the parents’ wishes for custody, and
- the child’s wishes for custody If the child is of a sufficient age (see below).
Other Factors
A court can consider all or some of the factors listed above, as well as any other factors it believes are relevant to what would serve the best interests of the child. Courts are not supposed to give certain weight to any particular factor, but should make decisions based on all the evidence before them. For more specific information on the factors considered by Connecticut courts in determining custody, contact a local family law attorney.
Can a Child Decide Which Parent They Want to Live With?
Connecticut courts may take a child’s wishes into consideration, but it does not mean that custody will automatically be awarded to the parent the child wishes to spend more time with. Instead, a child’s wishes are just one of several factors considered by courts in their overall custody decision.
There is no hard and fast rule on what age a child has to be to have their custody wishes considered. The law in Connecticut only requires that the child is “of sufficient age” to have his or her wishes considered, although twelve is generally considered a sufficient age.
For more specific information regarding custody in Connecticut, please contact a local family law attorney for help.
Resources
For the full text of the law governing custody and best interests of the child factors in Connecticut, see Conn. Gen. Stats §46b-56(a)-(c) (2011).
