Who has custody?
Find more information about who has custody.
The starting point in Denmark is that the child's two legal parents have joint custody.
Of course, there are exceptions, and the biggest rule to fall back on is that if no other conditions are met, then the pregnancy-bearing legal parent has sole custody.
Legal parents can agree that one of them will have sole custody. After this, they can agree to transfer custody between them – i.e. between the two legal parents.
The family court (which is a matter for the courts) may have ruled on this if the legal parents have disagreed on custody and have started proceedings to decide who should have custody. In that case, it is determined in the judgement who has custody.
Legal parents can agree that custody is to be transferred to others who are not the child's legal parents – including one of the legal parent's spouses or cohabitants.
See more under the section on agreements on custody on this website. Even though you may have arranged your family differently, it is only possible that two people together can share custody of a child. This is not possible with, for example, three custodial parents.
Change of custody
If a child's parents move apart, a legal parent or a parent with custody can apply for the child's residence. A legal parent or a parent with custody can also apply for a change of custody. If you do not have custody and are not a legal parent, you cannot apply for residence or change of custody, and therefore cannot apply for (part of) custody of a child.
However, it is possible to share custody by entering into an agreement with the legal parent, who is also the custodian. Such an agreement must be approved by the House of Family Law or the Family Court – read more about the subject of agreements on custody on this website.