Joint legal custody, with one parent having sole physical custody means that both of you will share decision making authority, but the minor children will typically spend fewer than 111 overnights in the home of the non-custodial parent each year. The non-custodial parent will have parent-time rights with a minimum parent-time schedule set out in the order.
Child support will be based on the sole custody worksheet and the gross income of each parent.
NOTE: The court will only order joint legal custody if both of you agree to it, you are both capable of working together to make decisions, and you both put the interests of the children first by doing such things as actively developing each child's relationship with the other parent.
Example: Though Jane and John Doe have been parenting their children very well together for years, Jane Doe has accepted a job that will take her too far away from their homes and the children's school to easily continue in their shared physical raising of the children. After asking their marriage counselor for guidance, they spend several weeks discussing their options. Jane and John Doe finally agree that even though having the care of both parents is critical to the children, it would be hard on the children to move them away from their friends, extended family and the schools they attend. They meet with a mediator who helps them write a parenting plan.
The parenting plan provides that Jane and John Doe will continue to make all of the important decisions about the children together, by phone, email and in person when possible. They agree to use a mediator to help them resolve any issues that they can't on their own together. They look carefully at the children's school schedule and decide that Jane Doe is close enough to have parent time every other weekend. They decide to follow the Utah parent time guidelines which also have a schedule for alternating holidays. They add a provision to the guidelines that each of them will have uninterrupted time with the children during winter and summer vacations.
They use the sole custody worksheet to calculate child support and even though John Doe earns much more than Jane Doe, she ends up paying a modest amount of support to him since he has sole physical custody.