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Legal Information: Puerto Rico

Custody

Updated: 
November 25, 2023

When could joint custody not be granted?

Joint custody will not be considered beneficial and favorable for the minor child in any the following cases:

  1. in the opinion of a mental health professional, one of the parents has a mental handicap or deficiency that is not curable and will make it difficult for him/her to adequately protect the physical, mental, and emotional safety and integrity of the child;
  2. acts committed by one of the parents endanger or set a bad example for the minor child;
  3. one of the parents is incarcerated;
  4. one of the parents has a criminal conviction for “domestic violence,” which includes the following crimes:
  5. one of the parents has committed sexual abuse or any sexual crime against any minor child – it does not have to be against his/her own child;
  6. one of the parents or his/her current intimate partner has been convicted of child abuse; or
  7. one of the parents or his/her current intimate partner is addicted to alcohol or illegal drugs.2

1 8 L.P.R.A. § 631-635
2 32 L.P.R.A. § 3187