Father’s Rights in Child Custody Cases

Fathers have just as many rights to their children in California as mothers do. The problem is that fathers are usually not as prepared for the child custody battle as mothers and so they don’t think about what their child custody rights are until after they have been taken away.

Child custody laws are the same throughout California and in each of the counties such as Los Angeles County, Ventura County, Orange county and San Diego County. Child Custody laws are designed to be uniform so that parents don’t try to move from one county to another county to get an upperhand.

Child Custody Rights are found in the Family Code of California. In it each parent has an equal right to physical custody – this is referred to as Joint Physical Custody. Each parent also has an equal right to legal custody – this is referred to as Joint Legal Custody.

What often happens is that one parent, usually the father, moves out of the family home leaving the child with the mother. This gives her the Primary Physical Custody of the child and means that he will have visitation. This is where he has lost most of his leverage in negotiating, it happens when he moves out of the home.