For a father, child custody (that is, sole physical custody) can be difficult to obtain. Despite the fact that most state laws now dictate that parents are equal in the eyes of the law, mothers are still often presumed to be the preferred primary caregiver. Fathers rarely seek physical custody which makes it unlikely that this viewpoint will change in the near future. However, joint legal custody is now the arrangement that many courts automatically grant in most cases. Unless a father has a history of abandonment or domestic violence, a petition for joint legal custody is likely to be successful. Although child custody can be a contentious issue, most mothers do not try to cut fathers out of their children's lives. The vast majority of custody agreements are reached without going through mediation or a trial. A father who has just learned of the existence of a child born out of wedlock should seek to establish paternity as the first step in seeking custody or visitation rights. Unless a father's parental rights have been terminated by the court, he will often be granted some custody rights if it can be shown that this involvement would not be harmful to his child.