joint or sole custody..whats the difference

stopthespends

i have been separted from my husband ( legally through a solicitor) since may 05 we have a little girl aged 2 and a bit.

i think i would like to have a divorce as there is no chance of us getting back together.

im alittle confused about custody and divorce in general...i think id like to DIY but dont know if i can with haveing a child involved.

we have settled all assets during the separation house and belongings and will etc.

i just want to be prepared really and get all the info.


can you help?

hex2

Sorry to hear that but am glad you seem to have settled things so amicably. To achieve full financial separation you do have to have divorced or you can have claims on each other for ever.

If you are in agreement about who is to have your daughter and when it should be fairly straight forward. DIY is supposed to be not that difficult but if you dont want the stress there a re a number of internet firms who file it for you fairly cheaply. https://www.justdivorce.co.uk is good and has a helpful FAQ section. Good luck.

november

I don't see why you can't DIY if you agree over who the child is living with.

Its not called 'custody' any more its called 'residence'. There are 2 things - parental responsibility which is basically who gets a say in what happens to the child e.g. where the child lives, what school he/she attends etc. If you are married both parents automaticlly have parental responsibility.

Residence is simply where the child lives. Whichever parent the child lives with has residence. Joint residence would be where the child spent equal amounts of time living with each parent.

The major inconvenience with joint residence if one parent is in receipt of benefit is the benefit system doesn't really recognise it (about time it caught up IMHO). Child benefit goes to the parent with residence and other benefits are often linked to that e.g. the one receiving child benefit is seen as having proof of having a child. So its also worth discussing if you want to share residence which one of you will be in receipt of child benefit.

This - http://www.clsdirect.org.uk/legalhelp/leaflet03.jsp?section=5&lang=null gives a useful explanation of terms. If you go back to the 'advice search' link it gives other useful advice regarding divorce.