Legal Custody

Child custody and guardianship are legal terms which are sometimes used to describe the legal and practical relationship between a parent and his or her child, such as the right of the parent to make decisions for the child, and the parent's duty to care for the child. Following ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in most countries, terms such as "residence" and "contact" (known as "visitation" in the United States) have superseded the concepts of "custody" and "access". Instead of a parent having "custody" of or "access" to a child, a child is now said to "reside" or have "contact" with a parent. For a discussion of the new international standards, see parental responsibility.
See more at Wikipedia.org...

A child custody decision which entails the right to make, or participate in, the significant decisions affecting a child’s health and welfare (compare with physical custody and joint custody). - (read more on Legal custody)
  

In a divorce, one of two types of child custody. A parent who has legal custody has the right to be involved in all the decision making typically involved with being a parent, such as religious upbringing, education and medical decisions. Legal custody can be either sole or joint. Compare with physical custody.