Insight on Fathers’ Rights in a Tennessee Custody Case

Fathers with a child custody case: consult a child custody attorney in Collierville to learn more about your rights. Historically, when divorce ends in a battle for child custody, the mother is more likely to come out on top. In fact, according to U.S Census data, in 2007 82.6 percent of custodial parents were mothers; only a mere 17.4 percent were fathers. This doesn’t have to be the case, though.

Gender is Not a Factor

For many years, states followed the Tender Years Doctrine, which gave mothers a presumption of custody in the case of a divorce, concluding that young children benefit most from the care of their mothers. However, in 1997, Tennessee Legislature passed a new law (code 36-6-412) that prohibits using this doctrine or any form of gender discrimination when determining the outcome of a child custody case.

Now, courts award custody according to the child’s best interests, with no consideration given to a parent’s gender.

Factors taken into account when determining custody include:

• the age, gender and health of the child;
• the health of the parents;
• each parent’s emotional bond with the child;
• the child’s current living situation and any effect changing the living arrangement would have on him or her;
• the wishes of the child, if they are 12 or older;
• each parent’s ability to provide for the child, both physically and emotionally;
• each parent’s lifestyles and living situations; and
• any history of abuse or neglect.

Consider contacting a child custody attorney in Collierville to learn more about your rights. Both legal custody and physical custody must be determined in custody cases, and gender may not play a role in determining either type. 

Legal Custody

To have legal custody of your child means you have the right to make decisions regarding his or her upbringing, including determining how he or she will be educated, the child’s religious affiliation and upbringing, and how health and medical care will be administered.

Legal custody can be sole, in which just one parent makes all decisions regarding the child. Or, custody can be joint. When joint legal custody is awarded, this means each parent must legally consult the other parent before making any child-rearing decisions regardless of the physical custody arrangement. If you fail to include the other parent in cases in which joint legal custody is granted, he or she could take you to court and file for sole legal custody of the child.

Physical Custody

Physical custody refers to the actual physical care of your child, meaning with whom the child lives permanently. If you have physical custody, it means your child lives with you and you physically provide for their needs. Just like legal custody, physical custody can be sole or joint. In the event that sole custody is granted, the other parent may still be able to see the child through supervised or unsupervised visitations, as determined by the court.

When joint physical custody is awarded, it can mean one of two things: 

• that the child lives with one parent part of the week, month, or year, then switches and lives with the other for an equal or similar amount of time; or
• that the parents move in and out of the child’s home and take turns physically caring for him or her (this is often called bird’s nest custody). 

To learn more, see Memphis, Tennessee Fathers’ Rights.