Custody Overview

Child custody and parental visitation are crucial aspects of family law litigation which have significant impact on your children.

In New York, courts consider the best interests of the child when deciding child custody and visitation issues.

Our firm has extensive experience handling custody and visitation matters with a history of settling and litigating legally complex, high-conflict cases, such as:

Custody litigation

Obtaining supervised visitation

Interstate child abduction

Hague Convention child abduction cases

Relocation actions

New York law distinguishes between “physical” and “legal” custody. “Physical” refers to where the child resides. A parent who has primary physical custody will have the child living with them more than the other parent. Courts will order visitation time to the non-custodial parent. Parents who share joint physical custody have an equal split of parenting time.

Legal custody refers to decision making ability. If a parent has “sole legal custody,” that parent has the exclusive right to make certain decisions regarding the child, such as medical and educational decisions. If the parents share “joint legal custody,” both parents are legally entitled to share in making such decisions.

Parents can share custody in a variety of different ways:
A parent can have sole physical and sole legal custody
One parent can have sole physical custody while both parents share joint legal custody
The parents can share joint physical and joint legal custody

Green Kaminer Min & Rockmore provides knowledgeable and experienced counsel to parents involved in custody disputes and ensures that any parenting arrangement serves their children’s best interests. In the event an agreement cannot be reached, we also have extensive trial experience in child custody cases. We invite you to contact us or call us at 212-681-6400 to set up a consultation.