a court's determination of which parent or relative should have physical and/or legal control and responsibility for a minor (child) under 18. However, child custody also can come up if a child, relative, close friend or state agency questions whether one or both parents is unfit, absent, dead, in prison, or dangerous to the child's well-being. In such cases custody can be awarded to a grandparent or other relative, a foster parent, or an orphanage or other organization or institution. While a divorce is pending the court may grant temporary custody to one of the parents, require conferences or investigation (in some states, if the parents cannot agree, custody is automatically referred to a mediator, commissioner, or social worker) before making a final ruling. There is a difference between physical custody which designates where the child will actually live and legal custody which gives the custodial parent(s) the right to make decisions for the child's welfare
Read more at: http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Sole+Custody
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