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Custody means you have the right and responsibilities of raising your child. There are two types of custody, legal and physical.
Legal custody means you have the right to make major decisions about how the child is raised. This includes deciding what school the child goes to, what health care s/he receives, and what religion s/he is taught.1
Physical custody means the child mostly lives with you. You take care of the child regularly and control his/her daily routine.2 The parent with physical custody is known as the “custodial parent,”3 and the other parent is known as the “non-custodial parent.”
1 Minn. Stat. § 518.003(a)
2 Minn. Stat. § 518.003(c)
3 Minn. Stat. § 518.003(e)
What is joint custody?
Joint custody means both parents share the rights and responsibilities of raising their child. There are two types of joint custody, joint legal and joint physical.
Joint legal custody is when both parents have the same rights to make major decisions about how the child is raised. This includes deciding what school the child goes to, what health care s/he receives, and what religion s/he is taught. 1
Joint physical custody is when the child lives with both parents at different times. Each parent takes care of the child and controls the child’s daily routine when the child is at his/her respective home.2
1 Minn. Stat. § 518.003(b)
2 Minn. Stat. § 518.003(d)
Should I start a court case to ask for supervised visitation?
If you are not comfortable with the abuser being alone with your child, you might be thinking about asking the judge to order that visits with your child be supervised. If you are already in court because the abuser filed for visitation or custody, you may not have much to lose by asking that the visits be supervised if you can present a valid reason for your request (although this may depend on your situation).
However, if there is no current court case, please get legal advice BEFORE you start a court case to ask for supervised visits. We strongly recommend that you talk to an attorney who specializes in custody matters to find out what you would have to prove to get the visits supervised and how long supervised visits would last, based on the facts of your case.
In the majority of cases, supervised visits are only a temporary measure. Although the exact visitation order will vary by state, county, or judge, the judge might order a professional to observe the other parent on a certain amount of visits or the visits might be supervised by a relative for a certain amount of time – and if there are no obvious problems, the visits may likely become unsupervised. Oftentimes, at the end of a case, the other parent ends up with more frequent and/ or longer visits than s/he had before you went into court or even some form of custody.
In some cases, to protect your child from immediate danger by the abuser, starting a case to ask for custody and supervised visits is appropriate. To find out what may be best in your situation, please go to MN Finding a Lawyer to seek out legal advice.
Where can I find more information on custody in Minnesota?
The Minnesota Judicial Branch has links to court forms related to custody and parenting time.
Lawhelp.org provides information on custody, paternity, and parenting time.
The Minnesota Department of Human Services also provides information on parentage (paternity), which is geared for both mothers and fathers.
WomensLaw.org is not affiliated with any of the above websites. We provide the links for your information only.
