"Physical custody" has to do with where the children live or sleep most of the time. It's a general concept, and doesn't refer to a specific schedule. Again, the order will be either joint physical or sole physical. Even if one parent has sole physical custody, the other parent may have the right of visitation. Joint physical custody is the norm, but the Court may order sole physical custody if the parents live far away from each other, or if the children are with one parent almost all the time.
Mediation Services
By law, parents who want to establish or change custody or visitation orders have to go through mediation first. This happens at Family Court Services, a state agency where trained social workers and/or lawyers meet with parents to try to get them to reach an agreement. Family Court Services won’t get into financial matters (such as child support, travel costs, health care reimbursements); the goal is to get the parents to agree on a parenting plan that is in their children’s best interests.
The mediator can spend up to two hours with both parents. If they can reach an agreement, or a partial agreement, Family Court Services will write it up and forward it to the judge before your court hearing. If there’s no agreement at all, or if there are some issues where the parents can’t see eye to eye, the mediator can then contact teachers, therapists, or the children themselves. He or she then writes a recommendation and forwards it to the judge.
Family Law Court Hearing
At the hearing that follows mediation, the judge reviews the results of the Family Court Services appointment and asks the parents if they have come to an agreement. (The parties must make a good-faith effort to meet and confer with the other side to come to an agreement before the judge will hear them.) If there is not a full agreement, the judge will hear about 15-20 minutes of oral argument from the lawyers (or, if there are no lawyers, from the parties).
At the end of the hearing, the judge adopts some version of the agreement or recommendation that he or she feels is in the best interest of the children.
