Custody · Georgia · checked 2026-08-21

Custody in Georgia.

The starting point the law actually sets, what the judge has to weigh, and the deadlines that catch people out.

Is 50/50 the default in Georgia?

We could not confirm this

We could not confirm this, and we want to flag it rather than paper over it. The specific sentence we were asked to check – whether O.C.G.A. 19-9-3(a)(1) says there is no presumption in favor of any particular form of custody – did not appear in any of the roughly 1,460 Georgia Court of Appeals opinions we read on the court's own site. What we can confirm from those opinions is the surrounding law: 19-9-3(a)(1) applies to 'cases in which the custody of any child is at issue between the parents'; 19-9-3(a)(2) makes the judge's sole duty the best interest of the child; and a court may not award joint legal custody without expressly finding that award to be in the child's best interest. Treat 'no presumption' as unverified until you or your lawyer read subsection (a)(1) in the current code.

Some details on this page could not be confirmed on a state source. The gaps are named at the bottom.

Use the state’s own words

Georgia uses "custody," "parenting plan," "visitation," and — for unmarried fathers — "legitimation," which is a distinct legal action with its own name and its own filing. The Judicial Council of Georgia's Administrative Office of the Courts describes the final order as either part of "the divorce decree (if married)" or "the legitimation and custody order (if the parties are not married)."

How Georgia decides

Decisions against where the child lives

Georgia courts award legal custody (decision-making) and physical custody separately, and joint legal custody with a primary physical custodian is common. Note one thing the Court of Appeals has made explicit: a trial court may not hand a parent joint legal custody without deciding that it is in the child's best interest. In a 2024 published decision the court held that the mandatory language of O.C.G.A. 19-9-3(a)(2) 'requires that the trial court determine whether a grant of custody is in a child's best interest,' and that finding a relationship with a parent to be in the child's interest is not the same finding.

What the judge must weigh

Start with what Georgia does not do. The first paragraph of the custody statute takes away every shortcut a reader might be hoping for or dreading:

O.C.G.A. 19-9-3(a)(1)(a)(1) In all cases in which the custody of any child is at issue between the parents, there shall be no prima-facie right to the custody of the child in the father or mother. There shall be no presumption in favor of any particular form of custody, legal or physical, nor in favor of either parent. Joint custody may be considered as an alternative form of custody by the judge and the judge at any temporary or permanent hearing may grant sole custody, joint custody, joint legal custody, or joint physical custody as appropriate.

Read that twice if you have been told otherwise. No prima facie right in the father or the mother. No presumption in favor of any form of custody. No presumption in favor of either parent. Joint custody is available but it is an alternative the judge may consider, not a starting point. And custody is decided by a judge, never a jury:

O.C.G.A. 19-9-3(a)(2)(2) The judge hearing the issue of custody shall make a determination of custody of a child and such matter shall not be decided by a jury. The judge may take into consideration all the circumstances of the case, including the improvement of the health of the party seeking a change in custody provisions, in determining to whom custody of the child should be awarded. The duty of the judge in all such cases shall be to exercise its discretion to look to and determine solely what is for the best interest of the child and what will best promote the child's welfare and happiness and to make his or her award accordingly.

The seventeen factors

“In determining the best interests of the child, the judge may consider any relevant factor including, but not limited to:” — so this list is a floor, not a ceiling.

(A) The love, affection, bonding, and emotional ties existing between each parent and the child;
(B) The love, affection, bonding, and emotional ties existing between the child and his or her siblings, half siblings, and stepsiblings and the residence of such other children;
(C) The capacity and disposition of each parent to give the child love, affection, and guidance and to continue the education and rearing of the child;
(D) Each parent's knowledge and familiarity of the child and the child's needs;
(E) The capacity and disposition of each parent to provide the child with food, clothing, medical care, day-to-day needs, and other necessary basic care, with consideration made for the potential payment of child support by the other parent;
(F) The home environment of each parent considering the promotion of nurturance and safety of the child rather than superficial or material factors;
(G) The importance of continuity in the child's life and the length of time the child has lived in a stable, satisfactory environment and the desirability of maintaining continuity;
(H) The stability of the family unit of each of the parents and the presence or absence of each parent's support systems within the community to benefit the child;
(I) The mental and physical health of each parent, except to the extent as provided in Code Section 30-4-5 and this paragraph and such factors as provided in Code Section 15-11-26;
(J) Each parent's involvement, or lack thereof, in the child's education, social, and extracurricular activities;
(K) Each parent's employment schedule and the related flexibility or limitations, if any, of a parent to care for the child;
(L) The home, school, and community record and history of the child, as well as any health or educational special needs of the child;
(M) Each parent's past performance and relative abilities for future performance of parenting responsibilities;
(N) The willingness and ability of each of the parents to facilitate and encourage a close and continuing parent-child relationship between the child and the other parent, consistent with the best interest of the child;
(O) Any recommendation by a court appointed custody evaluator or guardian ad litem;
(P) Any evidence of family violence or sexual, mental, or physical child abuse or criminal history of either parent; and
(Q) Any evidence of substance abuse by either parent.

Two of these repay attention. Factor (B) is unusually broad: Georgia asks about the child’s ties to siblings, half siblings and stepsiblings, and where those other children live — so a blended family on either side is squarely relevant. Factor (N) is the one people trip over: your willingness to encourage the child’s relationship with the other parent is itself a factor, and it is qualified only by the best interest of the child.

Authority: O.C.G.A. 19-9-3(a)(1) to (a)(3), as enacted by 2007 Ga. Act 264 (HB 369), section 5, effective 1 January 2008, and as since amended. Only subparagraph (I) reads differently today from the 2007 original — most summaries still print the 2007 wording of it.

Read from: appellate opinion quoting statute. This state does not make its code freely readable, so the wording above comes from the closest official source we could reach.

What the child wants

Georgia is one of the few states that puts an age on this, and the rule is widely misdescribed. There are two provisions, and they do different things.

Aged 14 or over

O.C.G.A. 19-9-3(a)(5)(5) In all custody cases in which the child has reached the age of 14 years, the child shall have the right to select the parent with whom he or she desires to live. The child's selection for purposes of custody shall be presumptive unless the parent so selected is determined not to be in the best interests of the child. The parental selection by a child who has reached the age of 14 may, in and of itself, constitute a material change of condition or circumstance in any action seeking a modification or change in the custody of that child; provided, however, that such selection may only be made once within a period of two years from the date of the previous selection and the best interests of the child standard shall apply.

What that actually means. The child has a right to select, and the selection is presumptive — not controlling, and not automatic. The judge can refuse it, but only by determining that the parent the child chose is not in the child’s best interests.by itself be the material change of circumstance that gets a modification case through the door, which is unusual: in most states a child’s changed preference is evidence, not a threshold. The limit is that the selection can only be made once in any two-year period.

Aged 11 to 13

O.C.G.A. 19-9-3(a)(6)(6) In all custody cases in which the child has reached the age of 11 but not 14 years, the judge shall consider the desires and educational needs of the child in determining which parent shall have custody. The judge shall have complete discretion in making this determination, and the child's desires shall not be controlling. The judge shall further have broad discretion as to how the child's desires are to be considered, including through the report of a guardian ad litem. The best interests of the child standard shall be controlling. The parental selection of a child who has reached the age of 11 but not 14 years shall not, in and of itself, constitute a material change of condition or circumstance in any action seeking a modification or change in the custody of that child. The judge may issue an order granting temporary custody to the selected parent for a trial period not to exceed six months regarding the custody of a child who has reached the age of 11 but not 14 years where the judge hearing the case determines such a temporary order is appropriate.

Here the child’s wishes must be considered but are expressly not controlling, the judge has complete discretion over how to hear them — often through a guardian ad litem’s report rather than the child in the courtroom — and the selection cannot on its own be a material change. The judge can, though, order a six-month trial period with the chosen parent, which is worth knowing about before anyone treats a first order as the end of the matter.

Authority: O.C.G.A. 19-9-3(a)(5) and (a)(6), as enacted by 2007 Ga. Act 264 (HB 369), section 5, effective 1 January 2008. Neither paragraph has been amended since. Before 2008 the fourteen-year-old’s selection was controlling where the chosen parent was a fit and proper person; the 2007 Act replaced that with the presumptive-plus-best-interests test above.

Where there has been violence or abuse

Partly confirmed. Evidence of substance abuse by either parent is expressly a permitted consideration under O.C.G.A. 19-9-3(a)(3)(Q). We could not recover the full lettered list in 19-9-3(a)(3), which is where family violence appears, so we are not quoting it. Georgia courts do treat family violence as a material change: in one 2024 decision the Court of Appeals upheld a change of custody where the child had witnessed family violence in a parent's home, a sibling was killed there, and the child once got out of the home unsupervised – evidence the court held sufficient to show both a material change in circumstances and an adverse effect on the child.

The paperwork and the people

The parenting plan

Yes, and it is not optional. Georgia requires a parenting plan in every contested custody case and in every modification, and the plan goes into the final order rather than sitting beside it.

O.C.G.A. 19-9-1(a)Except when a parent seeks emergency relief for family violence pursuant to Code Section 19-13-3 or 19-13-4, in all cases in which the custody of any child is at issue between the parents, each parent shall prepare a parenting plan or the parties may jointly submit a parenting plan. It shall be in the court's discretion as to when a party shall be required to submit a parenting plan to the court. A parenting plan shall be required for permanent custody and modification actions and in the court's discretion may be required for temporary hearings. The final order in any legal action involving the custody of a child, including modification actions, shall incorporate a permanent parenting plan as further set forth in this Code section; provided, however, that unless otherwise ordered by the court, a separate court order exclusively devoted to a parenting plan shall not be required.

What it must contain

(b)(1) Unless otherwise ordered by the court, a parenting plan shall include the following:
(A) A recognition that a close and continuing parent-child relationship and continuity in the child's life will be in the child's best interest;
(B) A recognition that the child's needs will change and grow as the child matures and demonstrate that the parents will make an effort to parent that takes this issue into account so that future modifications to the parenting plan are minimized;
(C) A recognition that a parent with physical custody will make day-to-day decisions and emergency decisions while the child is residing with such parent; and
(D) That both parents will have access to all of the child's records and information, including, but not limited to, education, health, health insurance, extracurricular activities, and religious communications.
(2) Unless otherwise ordered by the court, or agreed upon by the parties, a parenting plan shall include, but not be limited to:
(A) Where and when a child will be in each parent's physical care, designating where the child will spend each day of the year;
(B) How holidays, birthdays, vacations, school breaks, and other special occasions will be spent with each parent including the time of day that each event will begin and end;
(C) Transportation arrangements including how the child will be exchanged between the parents, the location of the exchange, how the transportation costs will be paid, and any other matter relating to the child spending time with each parent;
(D) Whether supervision will be needed for any parenting time and, if so, the particulars of the supervision;
(E) An allocation of decision-making authority to one or both of the parents with regard to the child's education, health, extracurricular activities, and religious upbringing, and if the parents agree the matters should be jointly decided, how to resolve a situation in which the parents disagree on resolution;
(F) What, if any, limitations will exist while one parent has physical custody of the child in terms of the other parent contacting the child and the other parent's right to access education, health, extracurricular activity, and religious information regarding the child; and
(G) If a military parent is a party in the case:
(i) How to manage the child's transition into temporary physical custody to a nondeploying parent if a military parent is deployed;
(ii) The manner in which the child will maintain continuing contact with a deployed parent;
(iii) How a deployed parent's parenting time may be delegated to his or her extended family;
(iv) How the parenting plan will be resumed once the deployed parent returns from deployment; and
(v) How divisions (i) through (iv) of this subparagraph serve the best interest of the child.

O.C.G.A. 19-9-1(c)(c) If the parties cannot reach agreement on a permanent parenting plan, each party shall file and serve a proposed parenting plan on or before the date set by the court. Failure to comply with filing a parenting plan may result in the court adopting the plan of the opposing party if the judge finds such plan to be in the best interests of the child.

The sentence to act on is the last one. If you do not file a parenting plan, the court may adopt the other parent’s plan — and the only thing standing between that plan and your children’s calendar is the judge’s view of their best interests. Note also what (2)(A) demands: the plan must designate where the child will spend each day of the year. A vague schedule is not a Georgia parenting plan.

Authority: O.C.G.A. 19-9-1, as amended by 2016 Ga. Act 362 (HB 52), which is what made the plan part of the final order rather than a separate one. Also amended in 2011 by the Military Parents Rights Act, which is where subparagraph (G) comes from, and in 2013. No amendment since 2016.

Mediation

We could not confirm Georgia's mediation requirement from an official source. Many Georgia superior court circuits require mediation in contested custody cases; ask the clerk of your circuit.

If the court appoints someone to look into it

Partly confirmed. O.C.G.A. 19-9-3(a)(6) expressly contemplates the court learning a child's desires 'through the report of a guardian ad litem.' We did not confirm Georgia's rules for appointing a custody evaluator.

Moving away

What you must do before you move

Thirty days’ written notice, with the full address. This duty falls on any parent who changes residence, not only the custodial one, and the custodial parent additionally owes it to anyone else holding visitation or parenting time under a court order.

O.C.G.A. 19-9-3(f)(f)(1) In any case in which a judgment awarding the custody of a child has been entered, the court entering such judgment shall retain jurisdiction of the case for the purpose of ordering the custodial parent to notify the court of any changes in the residence of the child. (2) In any case in which visitation rights or parenting time has been provided to the noncustodial parent and the court orders that the custodial parent provide notice of a change in address of the place for pickup and delivery of the child for visitation or parenting time, the custodial parent shall notify the noncustodial parent, in writing, of any change in such address. Such written notification shall provide a street address or other description of the new location for pickup and delivery so that the noncustodial parent may exercise such parent's visitation rights or parenting time. (3) Except where otherwise provided by court order, in any case under this subsection in which a parent changes his or her residence, he or she must give notification of such change to the other parent and, if the parent changing residence is the custodial parent, to any other person granted visitation rights or parenting time under this title or a court order. Such notification shall be given at least 30 days prior to the anticipated change of residence and shall include the full address of the new residence.

One protection sits next to it. A parent who leaves or relocates because of the other parent’s domestic violence is not treated as having abandoned the child:

O.C.G.A. 19-9-3(a)(4)(C)(C) If a parent is absent or relocates because of an act of domestic violence by the other parent, such absence or relocation for a reasonable period of time in the circumstances shall not be deemed an abandonment of the child for the purposes of custody determination; and

Now the part most guides get wrong. Georgia has no relocation statute in the sense of a standard the court applies to decide whether you may move. We read the whole of Article 1 of Chapter 9 of Title 19 as enacted and as amended through 2026, and what is there is a notice duty and nothing more. The standard that decides whether a move is allowed comes from Georgia case law, and it is a full best-interests inquiry rather than any presumption for or against the moving parent. We have not been able to read the leading decision from an official source, so we are not going to tell you what it holds. Ask a Georgia family lawyer what the current relocation case law requires before you sign a lease in another state.

Authority: O.C.G.A. 19-9-3(f) and 19-9-3(a)(4)(C), as enacted by 2007 Ga. Act 264 (HB 369), section 5, effective 1 January 2008. Subsection (f) has never been amended.

Later on

Changing the order

Two different rules, and knowing which one you are under matters. To change custody, Georgia requires proof of both a change in conditions and an adverse effect on the child; if the court finds a material change of conditions, it is then authorized to modify custody if modification is in the child's best interest (Bodne v. Bodne, 277 Ga. 445, 446 (2003), as quoted by the Court of Appeals). To change only visitation or parenting time, O.C.G.A. 19-9-3(b) allows review and modification 'without the necessity of any showing of a change in any material conditions and circumstances of either party or the child, provided that the review and modification or alteration shall not be had more often than once in each two-year period following the date of entry of the judgment.' Two more useful points from the same statute: under 19-9-3(a)(8), if any party requests it on or before the close of evidence in a contested hearing, the permanent custody order 'shall set forth specific findings of fact as to the basis for the judge's decision,' and must be filed within 30 days of the final hearing – but that requirement applies only to permanent orders, not temporary ones. And under 19-9-3(b), a custody judgment does not limit the court's power to enter a new judgment 'based upon a showing of a change in any material conditions or circumstances of a party or the child.' Georgia also disfavors 'self-executing' custody or visitation changes that would take effect automatically at some future date without any look at the child's circumstances at that time.

If you were never married

This is the single most important thing for an unmarried Georgia father to understand, and it is confirmed by the Judicial Council of Georgia's Administrative Office of the Courts: "Legitimation is a legal action which is the only way, other than by marrying the mother of a child, that the father of a child born out of wedlock in the State of Georgia may establish legal rights to his child." Signing the birth certificate is not enough, and being ordered to pay child support is not enough. Until legitimation is granted, the father has no custody or visitation rights to enforce. File the legitimation action first; custody and parenting time are decided in or alongside it. https://georgiacourts.gov/

If you are an unmarried father in Georgia, legitimation is the whole ballgame and it is a separate case you have to bring. Many fathers spend months paying support and seeing their child informally, then discover they had no enforceable rights the entire time. Separately, budget time for the parenting plan: Georgia requires one in every custody or visitation case, and if you and the other parent do not agree, you each file your own competing plan rather than one shared document.

Nothing has changed here since 2022

We checked the Office of Legislative Counsel’s official index of enacted statutes for the 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026 sessions. Neither the custody section nor the parenting plan section appears in any of them. The last amendment of any kind to the custody section was on 2 May 2022, and it changed a single cross-reference inside factor (I). The 2026 volume is here.

How we know this, and what we could not check

Georgia does not publish its own statutes for free. The General Assembly links “Georgia Code” out to a commercial publisher whose site will not serve text to anything but a live browser session, and the court system’s benchbook is password protected. We did not try to get around either.

So this page was rebuilt from the enacted Acts, which are official and are published by the Legislature itself. The Office of Legislative Counsel puts out a Summary of General Statutes Enacted after every session listing every Code section that session touched; we read every volume from 2008 to 2026, found the seven Acts that have amended these sections, and read each Act’s own strike-through and underline markup to see which words were removed and which added.

What that means for you. The words above are reliable — every sentence appears in a named Act at a link you can open. The paragraph numbers are not independently verified: they follow each Act’s express renumbering instructions, but the body that prints the final designations is the Code Revision Commission and its output is not freely readable. If you are citing a subsection in a filing, check the number against a subscription service or a law library copy. Quote the words with confidence.

We could not read Georgia’s leading relocation decision from an official source, so this page states the notice statute and stops there rather than summarizing a holding.
The section catchlines — the bold titles above each Code section — are editorial rather than enacted, so we do not quote them as law.
The 2007 Act’s PDF renders apostrophes as an acute accent. We normalized those to ordinary apostrophes. No word was changed.

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Sources last checked21 August 2026

Page published21 August 2026

What this means. This is when the sources on this page were last read against their originals — statutes, court rules, official schedules — taken from the date this page was built from its sources. It is not the date the page was last edited. Adding a link or fixing a typo does not move it; re-reading the statute does. Law changes without notice, so treat anything time-sensitive as needing a fresh check. Where we get something wrong we publish it at thecusp.app/corrections with the date, what changed, and how long the error was live.