If we have joint legal custody can the other parent take me to court if I do not do what he says?
Joint legal custody means both parents have a say in making big decisions. Big decisions include things like where a child should go to school and what religion the child should be raised in. What a child will wear or eat are not big decisions.
If you are the parent with physical custody, you are the one who makes the day-to-day decisions. You decide what your child wears, eats, and watches on television each day. The other parent can dress, feed and entertain your child as he likes on his visitation days.
Even with big decisions, you do not have to do what the other parent wants just because you have joint legal custody. If the two of you cannot agree on something, either of you can go back to court and ask a judge to decide.
If the other parent goes to court about small decisions like what the child wears, the judge may think he is wasting the court’s time. You can ask the judge to order the other parent to pay you for wasting your time and the court’s time.
If the other parent keeps bothering you about little decisions, you may want to go back to court and ask the judge to change your custody order to sole legal custody.
Produced by an AmeriCorps Project of Western Massachusetts Legal Services updated and revised Massachusetts Law Reform Institute Last updated October 2009