What is the difference between legal custody and physical custody?

Legal custody is the ability to make major decisions regarding your minor child related to education, religion, and medical care. In Minnesota, the presumption is for joint legal custody. Sole legal custody is generally reserved for situations where there is a safety concern between parents (usually because of a history of domestic violence) or because there is a history of decisions being delayed or blocked that have negatively affected the child’s well-being. Most parents share joint legal custody.

Physical custody legally means the “the routine daily care and control and the residence of the child.” However, physical custody is not the same as parenting time. Parents could share joint physical custody and not have equal parenting time. Or, contrarily, although more unlikely, parents could have equal parenting time but one parent could have sole physical custody. There is a common misbelief that the parent with sole physical custody can move out of state without the other parent’s permission. Even if a parent has sole physical custody, that parent cannot move out of the state without the other parent’s permission as long as the other parent has been granted some parenting time. Physical custody also does not provide any special access to a child’s records. Those rights are automatically granted to both parents through Minn. Stat. 518.17, Subd. 3.