Also known as: legal custodians · custodian
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A person to whom a court has granted legal custody of a child. The grant confers the right to physical custody together with authority to determine the nature of the child's care, protection, training, education, and welfare.
Landon Long petitions for maintenance after divorce. He has physical custody of the couple's child, whose severe asthma requires constant monitoring and frequent hospitalizations. The court finds that these circumstances make it appropriate for Landon to remain at home rather than seek outside employment, satisfying the statutory threshold for an award.
After the divorce decree, Leah Larson relocates across the state with the child she was named legal custodian of. The noncustodial parent petitions for modification. The court weighs the move's effect on the child's stability and the custodian's continued ability to meet the child's educational and medical needs before deciding whether changed circumstances justify altering custody.
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Lamar Lewis seeks maintenance after the divorce court awarded him the marital home and primary custody of the parties' child. The court calculates the award by including a sum for Lamar as custodian in the child-support component, recognizing that the provision for the child living with him also supports his own needs.
Lorenzo Lugo and Latoya Lane dispute custody of their daughter. The court awards primary physical custody to Latoya after weighing the child's wishes, her adjustment to school and community, and the parents' respective abilities to provide care, expressly declining to consider Latoya's unrelated personal conduct.
Lars Lindstrom moves to modify an existing custody decree two years after entry. He shows that the child's circumstances have changed because the current custodian has relocated far away and the child has developed serious behavioral issues. The court finds modification necessary to serve the child's best interest.
Lumen Capital's former executive seeks modification after his child has lived with him for eighteen months with the consent of the prior custodian. The court finds the child integrated into the executive's household and grants the modification on that ground alone.
A legal custodian receives the right to physical custody of the child and authority to determine the child's care, protection, training, education, and welfare. The court awards custody according to the best interest of the child and may not consider conduct of a proposed custodian that does not affect the relationship with the child.
Supporting sources
A spouse who is the custodian of a child whose condition makes outside employment inappropriate satisfies one statutory threshold for maintenance. The court also considers the extent to which any child-support provision includes a sum for the custodian when setting the amount of maintenance.
Supporting sources
A court may modify a prior custody decree only upon a showing of changed circumstances in the child or custodian since the decree and a finding that modification serves the child's best interest. The court retains the prior custodian unless the custodian agrees to modification, the child has integrated into the petitioner's family with the custodian's consent, or the child's present environment endangers the child's health.
Supporting sources
…probate exception to federal bankruptcy jurisdiction under § 1334.[^maj-3] In Markham , the plaintiff Alien Property Custodian[^maj-4] commenced suit in Federal District Court against an executor and resident heirs to determine the Custodian’s asserted rights regarding a decedent’s estate. 326 U. S., at 491-492.…