Joint legal custody does not mean that a child will share his or her time equally between the parents. Physical custody is exactly what it sounds like. A child resides with his or her physical custodian. In an uncontested situation, the court will usually approve shared physical custody arrangements which divide the child's time with the parents roughly equally. It is unusual for a court to award joint physical custody in a contested situation.
Every state has child support guidelines which determine the amount of child support to be paid.
For more information, please go to the Child Support Resources section. Distribution of retirement funds requires special attention so that the tax advantages associated with such funds will not be inadvertently lost. A Qualified Domestic Relations Order, or QDRO, is a document which transfers a share of retirement funds from the spouse participating in the retirement plan to the nonparticipating spouse. A QDRO is intended to transfer the agreed upon portion of the fund to the nonparticipating spouse while protecting the tax benefits which make these funds such attractive investments. Typically, QDROs are drafted after the divorce has been concluded.