So, first of all, in Minnesota, there are two types of custody that recognized. There is legal custody and physical custody. Legal custody is your major decision making. So, decisions about education, medical care, or religion are covered under legal custody. Physical custody is more day-to-day care of the child. The trend now is that the label of physical custody, whether joined, whether sole, it doesn’t really matter anymore. What’s important is the parenting time.

In Minnesota, when the courts are deciding the question of custody, that decision is based on the 12 statutory best interest of child factors. In Minnesota, there is a rebuttable presumption that joint legal custody is in the best interest of the child, except where there is domestic violence. In families where the parents have experience domestic violence, there is a rebuttable presumption that joint legal or joint physical custody is not in the child’s best interest.