Sole custody: who has parental responsibility

The judge can adopt sole custody only if the shared one would be harmful to the son or daughter - for example in the presence of violence, addictions, serious conflict or total disinterest - and must always motivate the decision (art. 337-quater of the Italian Civil Code). In this case, the foster parent makes ordinary decisions alone; extraordinary ones, in theory, remain shared, unless the judge orders otherwise in particularly serious situations.