I am a parent of a child who the other parent is denying my visitation...what do i do short of going to court?

beverly

If you have a Court ordered visitation plan, the Police can enforce it. In order for it to be enforceable, however, it must be specific - such as 'Child is with Father at X time, with Mother at Y time' or 'Child will be available for phone contact on X day between the hours of Y and Z'. The Police cannot really enforce generalized orders, such as 'neither parent will prevent the child from contacting the other parent' because there is nothing they can specifically pin down. Furthermore, you must have a copy of the order that includes the Judge's signature or stamp on it to prove it is official.

If you do not have a court order, there will be little to nothing the Police can do; thus you will need to *get* a court order.

If she is repeatedly violating the Court order (or if you do not have one at all) and you need the Court's assistance, keep in mind that Family Law in such cases is almost completely based upon addressing the needs of the children. The Court couldn't care less about how mean and nasty the parents are to each other EXCEPT when it affects the children. Therefore, all of your arguments need to address that core point. It is presumed (unless specifically proven otherwise) that it is in the best interest of the child to have meaningful contact with both parents; if she is preventing that contact it is an issue the court will consider. When determining the balance of custody between two parents, one of the things the Court looks at is the level of cooperation between the parents. If you have one parent who allows contact and one parent who does not, that will shift the balance towards the more cooperative parent so that the child will then have access to BOTH parents.

The fact that she has little or no contact with her older children is also demonstrative of her parenting skills and could be used to show that her motivations are focused on herself rather than her children.

This is an extremely complex issue; given that the custody laws in different states vary widely as well as the fact that different courts have different procedures and 'leanings', I would strongly advise you to retain a competent Family Law Attorney in your area. No matter how well you believe you can argue your case, it is a mistake to gamble your children's welfare without arming yourself with the best resources possible. It would be a tragedy to miss some deadline or catch some Judge the wrong way because you aren't familiar with 'how things work' in that Court.

âˆžinfinitiâˆž

Both parents have equal rights to the child.
Until there is a court order, there is not much you can do.
You could tell her that you are prepared to take her to court to set up a formal visitation schedule with your child. If that does not help, follow up on your threat and do it. A child deserves to have a relationship with both his parents.

laughter_every_day

Short of going to court, you persuade.

Lela A

Judges heard both sides of the case and make their ruling, denying a child from seeing a parent is very sick and sad..but things like this are better served to resolve in court for the sake of the children.

You could call the police if you have set days and times in your parenting plan, but allot of agencies will not help you. Unless the child is deathly ill or in the hospital the courts will make her allow visitation. The rest of this is assuming you have a visitation pplan set in place.

You are going to have to take this to court, but there is a cheap way to do it. You file for contempt of court. That is what she is doing by not following the court order. Most places this is free and all you pay is the service fee. If found guilty she faces fines and possible jail time. They usually will not give this the first time, but if it continues they will.

You could also file for enforcement of placement time. Call your local courthouse and ask about any fees.

The other thing to do (and yes I know summer is coming) is to set it up so that you pick the child up from school or daycare instead of her house. That way you only deal with her on the days she picks him back up.

If you do not have custody and visitation set up through the courts then you both have equal rights to the child. Because no one has custody either one of you can have the child. The next time you got him you could just not send him back. But it's a nasty game to play as she could do the same. But it would force her to take you to court.

Enter Your Message or Comment

User Name:
User Email:
Post a comment: