The court can order sole custody or joint custody. The most important aspect of custody, rather than deciding what legal term to use, is to decide how both parents will share responsibility for the children, and the amount of time each parent will spend with the children.
Child support is a different issue from child custody.
A parent cannot be denied access to a child merely because that parent is not paying support. Likewise the custodial parent cannot be denied support even if that parent is not providing access to the child to the non-custodial parent. The other parent will generally have visitation rights. The effect of a joint custody order is that both parents have equal say in the major decisions of a child s life, such as education, major medical treatment and religion. Joint Custody does not effect the amount of support obligation that the non-custodial parent is required to pay or otherwise affect visitation.