The petitioner is filing against the respondent for custody of the subject child in that temporary custody shall be with the petitioner and the respondent's rights of visitation shall be suspended.
Do I need a comma before "in that"?
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It does need a comma. Without the comma, the "in" becomes a preposition and the "that" becomes an article. SO it reads as if the child is in that custody, like "the pen is in that box".
Instead the intent is that "in that" is used in an explanatory sense, so the comma is, I feel, important.
Without it the sentence reads that it is talking about the respondent, not the child: the respondent...shall be with the petitioner.
Alan
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2The unary reading for 'in' is impossible, but as this takes a little decoding to discover, the comma to avoid the garden-path misdirection is advisable. – Edwin Ashworth Jun 27 '20 at 13:31
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You do, because "in that" is functioning as a conjunction between two independent clauses. You would also need a comma between "petitioner" and "and", for the same reason.
"The petitioner is filing against the respondent for custody of the subject child, in that temporary custody shall be with the petitioner, and the respondent's rights of visitation shall be suspended."
Matt S.
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2Subordinators/subordinating conjunctions (single-word or open compound) such as 'because', 'in that', 'with respect to' do not require a preceding comma (though I'd use one here as a breathing aid and parsing aid). (Exceptions are 'whereas' and 'although'.) ect extends this guideline to coordinators at commabefore 'and' in compound sentences - mandatory or not? – Edwin Ashworth Sep 27 '23 at 11:48
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