When a couple divorces and there is a minor child involved, the divorce decree will specify who has physical custody as well as legal custody of the child. Physical custody determines where and with whom the child will live. Legal custody specifies who has the legal right to make important decisions about the child concerning issues such as education, religion, medical issues, and discipline. Spouses often reach an agreement regarding child custody on their own, but if they do not, Maine courts will intervene and establish custody arrangements based on the best interests of the child.

According to lawyers.com, child custody is referred to as parental rights and responsibilities in the state of Maine. Parental rights and responsibilities include decisions about where the child will live, educational issues, religious upbringing, medical care, and travel boundaries. Maine courts base their decisions on the best interest of the child with significant weight given to the preference of a teenage child.

If the parents agree to an award of shared parental rights and responsibilities, a Maine court will allot that award unless there is substantial evidence that it should not be ordered. If the parents do not agree, the court may order shared or sole parental rights and responsibilities according to the best interest of the child.

Shared parental rights and responsibilities may include either an award of the child's primary residential care to one parent with the rights of parent-child contact, or visitation, being given to the other parent, or a sharing of the child's primary residential care by both parents. The court does not show preference towards one parent over the other based on the parent's gender or on the age or gender of the child in determining parental rights and responsibilities .

According to divorcesupport.com, Maine courts consider various factors when awarding parental rights and responsibilities, including the following:

• Age of the child
• Relationship of the child with the child's parents and any other persons who may significantly affect the child's welfare
• Preference of the child if he or she is old enough to express a meaningful preference
• Duration and adequacy of the child's current living arrangements and the desire to maintain continuity
• Stability of any proposed living arrangements for the child
• Motivation of the parties involved and their capacities to give the child love, affection, and guidance
• Child's adjustment to his or her present home, school, and community
• Capacity of each parent to allow and encourage frequent and continuing contact between the child and the other parent
• Capacity of each parent to cooperate or to learn to cooperate with child care
• Methods for assisting parental cooperation and resolving disputes and each parent's willingness to employ those methods
• Effect on the child if one parent has sole authority over the child's upbringing
• Existence of domestic abuse between the parents
• Existence of any history of child abuse by a parent
• Other factors having a reasonable bearing on the physical and psychological well-being of the child
• A parent's prior willful misuse of the protection from abuse process in order to gain a tactical advantage in a proceeding involving the determination of parental rights and responsibilities of a minor child
• If the child is under one year of age, whether the child is being breast-fed
• Existence of a parent's conviction of a sex offense

In Maine, either parent may petition the court to modify or terminate an order for parental rights and responsibilities where there has been a substantial change in circumstances. One example of a “substantial changes in circumstances” might be the relocation, or the intended relocation, of the child to either another state or more than 60 miles from the parent who is not relocating. For a summary of child custody law in Maine, go to divorcesource.com.