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Is Withholding a Child from Visitation Against the Law?
A child visitation agreement stipulates the amount of time that a child spends with each parent. Whether they are married or not, parents should exercise their visitation rights as soon as they part ways. Without a custody order or visitation schedule in place, the mother typically has all parental rights. If visitation has been established but one parent does not adhere to the guidelines, the other should take action immediately. Speaking to a visitation attorney is seriously important when this happens.
Establishing a Parenting Plan / Visitation Agreement
Establishing a visitation agreement or parenting plan is essential when it comes to making concrete plans that the other party cannot violate. A parenting plan (also called a custody judgment or visitation agreement) lays out all of the various rights and responsibilities of each parent in writing and is entered by a judge. This parenting plan will include issues such as: visitation times and dates, whether joint custody, sole custody, or shared custody is awarded to the parents, the rights of each parent to attend school and extracurricular activities, and the right of each parent to be kept up to date on all medical conditions or doctor appointments. When visitation has officially been established in writing by way of a parenting plan, it serves as a legal agreement to which each parent is bound. If one parent breaches the agreement, the other should initiate a discussion to find out why. It may be as simple as a change in work hours causing the parent to drop the child off late. This can be addressed by making a visitation schedule change.
Withholding a Child from Visitation
The situation becomes more serious when one parent withholds a child from visitation with the other parent. A custodial parent may do this to get the other parent to pay child support, agree to handle all transportation, or sometimes, just to spite their ex. From a legal perspective, child support and visitation are completely different things. A judge will frown upon a parent violating a visitation agreement for the purpose of obtaining past-due child support payments and this may result in the parent losing primary custody. In many states, the unreasonable denial of visitation as ordered by the court can even be a criminal offense. Although normally prosecution is withheld for only repeat offenders, the threat of being held in contempt of court by a judge can help keep the parent that threatens to withhold a child from visitation in line with the set schedule.
If a custodial parent occasionally withholds parenting time, the non-custodial parent should record the dates and times and request make-up time. If the custodial parent refuses to reschedule the missed visitation, the non-custodial parent should retain a child visitation attorney. In no case should the individual withhold child support or take the child without agreement. A parent that has been denied visitation must enter the court with “clean hands” in order to make a compelling and successful case to the judge. This means continuing to pay child support and continuing to offer reasonable makeup time offers in writing to the other parent. When all else fails, the filing of an emergency motion can get a parent in front of a judge in a matter of days and have the issue resolved quickly – albeit in court ordered fashion.
When a Parent Consistently Violates a Visitation Agreement
If parenting time/visitation is consistently withheld, this is a violation of the courts order. In some states, the non-custodial parent may go to the police for visitation enforcement. This would require having a copy of the visitation agreement for the police to view in person. However, police involvement can cause other problems with the custodial parent and may create trauma for the child. A wiser approach is to retain an attorney to file a court petition to enforce visitation rights. Some states consider non-compliance with a parenting order a very serious offense and the judge may decide to make a custody change. As previously stated, a number of states have begun making visitation denial a criminal offense and parents can be arrested and jailed for being held in contempt of court.
Each state uses different methods to enforce visitation so retaining a child visitation lawyer is always a good idea. Only an attorney is qualified to provide legal advice and help the non-custodial parent determine which course of action is the best. The goal should always be an outcome that maintains rights to visitation and is in the best interest of the child. When the best interests of your child are threatened, a child visitation attorney can be your best friend.
We had some disagreement with my wife last year and she opted out, she left the house to stay with her friends just nearby and I was left with our two children, 4&2 yrs old. My friends will tell me how they see her in night clubs but that wasn’t a problem since she wasn’t coming back to my house. She sometimes came and take the children spend sometime with them and bring them back since they were schooling. After 4months she came home while I was at work, took the children, switched off her phone and left the town, since then I have not seen my children not even speak with them, I asked her to even take a photo of the boys and send to me but she has refused. She changed her number and we only communicate through email which she responds when or if she feels like and some emails she doesn’t respond to completely, especially when I mention talking or seeing the children. What legal action can I take? I feel I have a right to the children too.
I’m faiiirrlly certain that’s considered kidnapping..
If it is in the parenting plan that a father should be allowed 2 phone calls a week and the mother refuses to allow the child time come to the phone is this breaking the law? Thank you
What if it’s the father that won’t allow the children to call their mother on the week he has them? What if the 13 year girl refuses to go back to her dad because he is physically abusing her. What if he has not tried to call her or to pick her up from school or at her mothers house? What if the older child went through the same thing with his dad at the age of 12. Now he’s a marine & because of the lies his dad has told him, he has nothing to do with his mom. He was writing her, talking to her until he got out of boot camp & spent the night with his dad & stepmother, he will not have anything it do with his mother or sister. It’s not always the mom that’s at fault. This mom tried to get her daughter to go back to her dads & informed him that she got off the bus at her mother moms. He did nothing. No call, or anything. After about 2 or 3 months he ask her to go eat with him, which she did. She ask him if he could let her go to his house to see her little brother & he wouldn’t allow her to do that. Her mom got her to go back to his house & he wouldn’t even let her in the door. He said horrible things to her & her mom & a friend recorded the event. Before all of this, he filed a call contempt of court on the mom. This is in North Carolina & other than trying to make these children he only had to pay $300 a month for both children. Then the mother gave him everything. We’ve kept notes ever since the son was 12 & he basically said the same thing the daughter is telling about his dad, plus the daughter told about him hitting the son, which he denies now. His dad has money so he wanted to be with him. Even though the other grandparents gave him everything including a truck which the dad & his family complained about it. Even though the insurance, taxes & upkeep, like tires & whatever he wanted was taken care of by the mother’s family. The step mother, the dad, the other grandmother & aunt have managed to turn him against the ones that love him more than anything. Now, they’re in court right now charging the mom with contempt & anything else they can think of. She can’t afford an attorney because she gave him everything & she can’t afford one. She had one but she paid her $1500 for going with her once, then $1500 more, then before court she wanted $1500 more. So, you see, it’s not always the mother’s that alienates the children.
The short answer is yes. Your attorney will need to file “motion to comply” with the court. Most times the police will not even get involved with something like this. But the repeated court motions can escalate the importance of the order.
Hi,
I have an important question. I am 13, and have only saw my biological dad when I was 5, so I asked my mom what his name is, she said Kevin but won’t give me his last name and she won’t let me see him. Would that be a legal case, if the child wants to see their father and learn more about him?
Would I have the legal right to see/learn more about him? I’ve tried searching for my birth certificate as well.
Hello Alana. Your story is almost similar to what my husband is goibg through with the woman that told him that her daughter might be his, but then took the child and left to another state. Now we have heard that the child has been asking the mother about her father. My husband has seen the child when she was small but not since. The child has the mothers last name and my husband is not on the birth certificate. We dont know what the mother tells the child about the father but my husband has always had a spot in his heart for the child regardless if she is his or not. Its crazy too because the childs name is Alana, too. Good luck and i hope you can find out about your father and the truth behind everything. Every child deserves both parents if possible and they deserve both parents to be respectful when it comes to co parenting. I love my kids soooo much. You can maybe ask a school counselor for reaources and help to get child rights to find their birth father and see your birth certificate.
I am a female and I feel for all of you fathers. I do not understand these women you are dealing with. Kids need both parents. I live in Missouri and when i got divorced we had to take a parenting class. I remember watching the videos and crying because Kids blame themselves for our divorce. We were taught that we SHOULD NOT use the kids against each other, do not talk shit on the other parent in front of them, do not withhold visiting rights, do not argue in front of them, and do not refuse child support, do not withhold info about the child, etc. That all affects the children. I guess that i am lucky because my ex and i have always got along. He had planned on moving out of state so i was awarded full physical custody but he ended up staying here. So we talked it over with the boys and decided they would stay a week with me, then a week with him, and we have rotated ever since- 5yr ago. we came up with our own child support plan too. When the boys go to the doctor or something happens at school or any kind of news i feel is important, i tell their father and we make decisions together. we try to keep things consistent at both houses. when they are going through phases of being defient, their dad comes over here and talks to them in front of me and tells them to obey me just as they do him. We have remained friendly and i consider him a friend even though we dont hang out. this has all helped our kids tremendously. we have always had birthday parties together, and my ex-mother in law and i are even still friends. we take my daughter and his daughters to the pool together in the summer. it is so much better to be kind and flexible, and even helpful to each other than to hate and be ugly and create stress for your kids. plus they are going to follow in your footsteps. do you want them to think its ok to be ugly to their spouse or marry someone who treats them like crap? I just don’t get it. Even if he would have treated me bad as long as he has not harmed the children and they want to see him, they should be allowed to. Do any of you live in Mo? i want to help a friend who is having problems with his ex withholding visitation rights. He needs a good lawyer and some advice.
This comment may not even see the light of day. As every site I try to get recognition from (help) it is immediately removed…
” The threat of contempt of court ” will make a parent stop… LOL… Unless you were married to a sociopath. My ex wife has been violating three judges visitation and rights orders for 5 years now. I invoke my rights, she sends me emails ” we don’t care about the law around here ” both the mother and grandmother for 13 years have been telling me I can’t see my kids, I am no longer a father, BUT, its all on tape, emails, texts, the grandmother literally drives my daughter up to my door step to pick up another child (which I have full custody) The issue is she is a Suffolk County resident and I am a Kings County, she uses SC to keep me away from my child. The mother lies to police, schools, etc, about my rights. The WAR I had to go through just to get my daughters report card. She uses CPS against me (when its her the complaints are filed about) never mind she is a convicted heroin addict and child abuser, this F agency makes my life HELL! When no citizen on the planet has filed one complaint against me. I have more agents at my door then she does. They call her on the phone to make appointments with her. So she knows they are coming, ” how moronic is this “? The grandmother, mother, are nothing but criminals and the police and every single municipal agency in Suffolk County aids and abets them. My story is way to long to post here… Simply I am a man up against a dirty woman in a feminist run state.
I have such a law suit against cps… and my ex and her mother, never mind the entire damn county.
Its my fault… I should have gone back to court and addressed this. But for 13 years I have been taking this woman to court and EVERY TIME I am told to shut the f up and sit down. I am NEVER allowed to speak, and I am the ONE filing the damn petitions! In one hearing my ex wife called me up that night, and said ” I have never seen a miscarriage of justice in my life ” She was showing me I can’t win. So I stopped going, I stopped calling CPS, as with every damn report they came after me and still do even now. This feminist agency files false petitions against me, saying the most vile things about me and my daughters relationship on behalf of the grandmother who holds temp custody. I am also told by these witches ” even though I am the father ” I can’t have my daughter, they put in writing! This is how bold they are. My ex mother in law sees all black people as MONKEYS (have that in writing) too…
I mean I am the damn FATHER! I know by law that my rights TRUMP grandma! Even the NYS Appellate Court ruled no non parent shall have custody over a PATERNAL one unless significant (extraordinary circumstances) has occurred, and here there is none. I had a BEAUTIFUL relationship with my daughter before 1-18-2012 and then GONE. See my eldest ran away, she refused to be surrounded by drugs, orgies, drug addicts, pimps, prostitutes, and being beaten. So after my ex wife just kept my daughter away from me. TOLD the ENTIRE Suffolk County she had orders of protections, she omits my name from the child’s emergency card, and they ALL believed her! Even after I faxed them PROOF, they STILL believed her! She calls the police and tells them lies about me, so I STAY away from Suffolk County. Its not worth it. I have two other children that need their dad, especially, my 17 year old daughter. One of the guys my ex wife had orgies with RAPED and MOLESTED my little girl at 7 repetitively! It was discovered 7 years later she is now 14. When my eldest daughter confronted the mother and grandmother this is what they said ” Oh no big deal he just put his penis on her that’s not rape! ” I THREW UP! ” when I heard that. The guy is in AZ because if he was here you would KNOW about me on the NEWS… Father rapes man in the middle of street! Sorry… and all the while this agency and every Suffolk County municipality comes after me! The law suit I will file against this place when I can, when city workers get paid, my signature will be the one APPROVING the check! I tell them this when I speak to them, and they say GO AHEAD… They don’t give a crap!
I just want to know when us men are going to RISE up and STOP this crap! When we are going to MARCH in MILLIONS through this country and the UK and say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! The family courts, law guardians, cps, police, teachers, my God, this movement is infused in every facet of government. If I can illustrate it best, watch ” She Devil ” with Rosanne Barr and Meryle Streep ” you will understand what is going on. I watched a court clerk screaming at a man for giving his daughter a hamburger because the wife didn’t want her to have it! WHEN are we going to STAND up and TAKE BACK our children!
Having your children kept from you is violating your fundamental civil rights to LIFE LIBERTY and the Pursuit of Happiness. If you are without your children (and this is done to women also) I just read about some mother 7 years hasn’t seen her child BROKE MY HEART, LIFE: You PRAY for death every day, so that is no life, LIBERTY: its been RIPPED and STOLEN from you! and Happiness? Lets just say it forms a HOLE in your heart and soul and even though you are smiling on the outside, you are dying on the inside.
You have to give these women who marched in the streets in millions credit, Trump pissed them off and they went after him, HUGE BALLS! and us men have been RAPED since 1920 and we do absolutely nothing…
For every man that endures this hell, STAYS and fights, even if they do sin, God should just give them a pass and red carpet entrance!
Terrence R. Kiellman: VICTIM, FATHER and US CITIZEN
PS: If there is any lawyers that see this and would want to sit down with me and see the possible law suits I have please email me. I live in Brooklyn, NY. My law evidence of allegations is PRIMA FACIE…
i feel for you im going through hell myself ,i havent seen my son since fall of 2014 just finished trial the phorensics dr said she fully alienated my son and will sabotage any visits if court resumed them and a visiting coach also testified that my son loves me and doesnt fear me my ex made my life miserable im just praying the judge will make right decision
You are right in every way. The courts, cps, all big racket. Taxpayers dollars. Primarily the nations men that pay that tax. Our children are suffering, at the hands of the people who run our state and legislative government. They are so busy. They cannot fathom how important being a good parent truly is. Let alone, it be a man. What a simple minded, ass backwards society we live in. Corruption Poisons Society. For those of us who care about our rights as well as our children’s welfare and well-being. We have a interest in our countries future. Unlike th e one’s who has the nannies teach their children proper morals and remind them about god. And what the People can do If they stand together. If they don’t hear you. Scream. Eventually, the masses will prevail. If, it truly is a democracy? Governed by the people? Isn’t that what they teach us in school. We have a voice. Wrong! Only when we unite, and march to Washington DC. Enough people support what is truly one of the most destructive form of sabotaging our families, as well as our children’s’ well-being and the future of our country. Is this not national security at the most basic level? We are obviously struggling at the most simple form of government to the top. I get no acceptable answers. Just one official passing the buck to another. No one taking accountability or responsibility of denial of basic civil rights. I love my country. Not feeling it loving my daughter or any other child in this nation. A nation of people, WE THE PEOPLE..
I think its time for these judges to retire. How can you judge fairly, when you reach a conclusion based on someone else’s experience. We are all different, in a sense of who we, are as individuals Therefore each case, deserves its own considerations. Not based upon case#, that happened in some court, somewhere else. Case study. I call Bullshit Again.God made us all equal. However we all behave differently, base upon our own upbringings and experiences. That is what makes us all unique. I’ve never been so confused in my life. Now we have family law. Just another way to separate us from our families and our constitutional rights. This way obviously has not been working. Ask around. This is everywhere. It’s absurd and unconstitutional. I never understood why they spend so many years understanding law, liberty and justice, yet they are oblivious to such things. Do some research. Its in black and white, and available for the public to see. Court records. Most of them at least. Unless your daddy’s a judge, politician, someone famous, and or a public official. See something similar here. What happened to we the people. It seems like its just some people.
I have a question, My husband and his ex have a custody agreement where he gets to see his son on the weekends Fri 6pm to Sun 6pm, however the mom is not following thru and is always making excuses why he can’t have his son, Karate practice, parties, she just wants to have time with him ect. Long story short she is NOT following thru on the COURT ordered agreement, The dad is a Legal Permanent resident and the mother is undocumented (Illegal) and the child is a citizen. Please any advise would be greatly appreciated. The state we live in is Pennsylvania
So my father is mad at my mom and I because I recently told him that she will be filing for custody. SO he is not trying to withhold me from seeing my mom. In the papers they signed it says every other weekend and every other holliday. My question is, is he allowed to keep me from seeing her because he is mad i’m moving?
My friends son is now turning 10 years old and has never met his father… now his father is trying to get visitation and the child has never even met him. He is ordered to pay child support and is 35,000 behind. What are options she can do? She agreed to waive all back child support if he would sign rights over… he is trying to get 6 hours every 3 months. What can she do to keep that from happening?
I am trying to help this guy friend of my his ex won’t let him see is daughter he asnt seen fore 6to 7 years what can I do to help him see her
Our son has been incarcerated, up to now he has paid child support and furnished health insurance for child. He was incarcerated until May where they let him out for three weeks. His ex wife refused to let him see his only son. He went back in to start serving the rest of his time. The divorce decree states they will alternate years on filing the child on taxes, and this is his year and the ex is also refusing him to do this (divorced after 2009). His ex is saying since he was incarcerated he wasn’t primary support, which she is and has always been, and like I stated earlier he is current on insurance and support. Is the ex entilited to do this? We see future problems when he gets out early next year. He wasn’t incarcerated for domestic violence or any thing to a child, the other person who wasn’t a child, women or elderly didn’t appreciate being who’s the toughest wasn’t them. Please help.
My ex has overnight access this weekend sarturday 11am until 7pm Sunday
If she returns my son Saturday night but wants to pick him back up Sunday morning am I obligated to allow that or is she forfeiting the rest of her access for the weekend by returning him early ?
Ithank you
My sons mother hasn’t let me see him since July 9, 2015. The day before my fiancé and I had our son. The decree states visitation is when both parties agree. Is she in contempt? Please any advice would be appreciated. I also found out she told our son , who is 6, I’ve been on vacation and to call her boyfriend dad.
i live in illinois and the father lives in florida. Me and my kids dad have been to court for custody and the judge has ruled that he gets temporay custody until we come up with a agreement that was in 2010. We had a temportay mediation agreement for one year. we didnt do another one. i have been trying to see my kids since 2010 and i have barley any contact with them cause he is busy or there not home etc ect. I pay child support for them. I want to go back to court and get a court order to see my kids and that case is closed now. i dont know if i have to reopen it or open a new one and what forms i need to fill out to do this. Cause i have a 4 yr old with someone else and they never meet her either and i want to be able to visit them or have them visit us. I need help.
I lived in CA. My ex and I split about 2 months now. No court order and we are trying to co-parent our son. we set a schedule of what days who take care of our son. but the days my ex have our son he doesn’t let him sleep over at his apt cause of his work schedule. he works 6:30am.I don’t know where he lives. I ask two time he refused to tell me. I feel like im not getting treated fairly. what should I do?
I was hoping to get help with this, I really need a lawyer for my divorce/child custody but cannot afford one, since I have had to move in with my mother. My husband lied about his income on the divorce papers when he filed for divorce and he has opted to skip mediaton and go straight to trial. He is asking for my daughter for half of the year or at least all summer and every other… she does not want to stay with him but she is only 9 and I am not sure they will listen to what she has to say. He had CPS called on him twice where we used to live (in another state) both times he refused to meet with them and they did not do anything about it. He has also been in counciling for anger I guess for a couple years but it does not help. I do not want to go against any court order but I am not comfortable leaving her with him for more than a few days. Especially when she stays there more than 2 or 3 days in a row she calls crying and does not want to be there. He is always on the phone and mostly ignores her and pawns her off on his mother who smokes with my daughter there and I do not appreciate. She tells my daughter things like “your mother is a terrible person” I mean, what can I do, please help!!
if the other parent breaks child custody orders and moves out of county ,then gives child to some one whos not related to the child and the other person trys to get custody what can be done the father has had no chance to parent the child
I was hoping for some advice. My daughter is 1 1/2 years old. Both my ex and I are on the birth certificate together. Recently, she has decided to end the relationship and have me move out. The only place I can afford to live, is with my father, which is 2 1/2 hours away. My ex states that I can not legally take her that far over night. Neither of us have gone to court over anything yet. I have the only source of income due to my ex having multiple theft charges, and one felony theft charge.I also am disabled. I have 2 domestic dispute charges against my father from 4 years ago. Is she able to hold my daughter from me because I live that far away, can she also change my daughters last name without my consent, and can she prevent me getting to have my daughter on weekends? I live in Michigan. I am 22 years old
This is a very difficult situation to assess with so few details (a very in depth intake is definitely required by a professional – give us a call). However, because there is nothing yet in court, neither one of you technically can tell the other person what to do – but don’t be fooled – because she is the mother, the police, if called, would probably grant her the right to do what she wants should there be a dispute. This is why you need a court order. Also, you say that you are on the birth certificate, but this technically does not mean that you are legally “dad”. Did you sign a “Voluntary Acknowledgement of Paternity”, also known as am “Affidavit of Parentage” (follow this link to see what it looks like: https://www.michigan.gov/documents/Parentage_10872_7.pdf ) as well? This is a legal document given to most parents that are unmarried in the hospital to sign. Many hospitals will not place your name on the birth certificate without signing, but some will, so it is likely you signed it but this is necessary for you to obtain asap. As for getting overnight visitation, as long as you are in the same state, overnight visitation should be allowed, barring anything bad in your pat. However, being that you moved far away, not her, it is likely that the burden of providing the majority of transportation would be on you for the time being. It is important that you get started immediately or the judge will not look favorably on a long absence in your child’s life. Call our team immediately to obtain your fathers rights!
My wife left me and she took our 5 year old boy in ga. We havnt been to court yet she has custody of him. She saids I can only see him every other weekend . I want to see him more what are my rights
Please contact one of our local Georgia family law professionals right away. The only way this gets worse right now is by waiting to make your move. The court will take notice of parents that wait 6 months or a year before they file for their father’s rights – this needs to happen immediately so that the judge can see how serious you are. Also, she does not have custody just because she took the children. In fact, if she now has bad living environment compared to your home, this may swing a custody decision in your favor! Here is a link to our state page on Georgia Family Law. Basics of Georgia Family Law Get started immediately and fight for your father’s rights!
Hello I’m dealing with a nasty break up between me and my ex girlfriend. We lived together for almost 3years but my baby girl is only 10 month’s. She lost custody of her 3 prior kids within the last 2 years because she git a dui and showed up to court intoxicated. Her oldest daughter choose to get a lawyer and live with her step dad because of verbal abuse. She gave me a ultimatum and I choose to get out of the relationship. She took my daughter and won’t disclose a address so I can send custody papers. She contacts me daily to tease me about her finding a new dad and threatening that she’ll teach me a lesson by never letting me see her again. Even as I type this she’s texting me about working it out. I just want to see my daughter without all this extra drama. When I say we can’t it turns into name calling and more time away from my cookie face. She then texts me that she wants child support or formula and pampers dropped off but I still can’t see my daughter. I’ve given her all of my daughter’s things and she just won’t stop the daily harassment. How can I serve papers when she won’t tell me where she’s staying? She’s using the black man abusing a white woman excuse to say she doesn’t have to specify a address and when I contacted the police after she threatened to kill my daughter she was tracked down by phone pings and told them I was lying because it was a phone conversation. Then she moved to another guy’s house because she has no family. Me and my family really miss my baby girl and just need some help. I’m currently not working because I watched her and my autistic son. I try to do side jobs but dont have a lot of money to pay for help. Thanks in advance for any advice
There is no easy way to attack this problem, and I would say that the most important thing you can do is find an attorney who can help. This will require getting money together, and I know you are on a budget, but this is essential and needs to happen before anymore time goes by. Talk to friends and family and get something together and work out a payment arrangement with one of our affiliated attorneys by filling out the side form on our site.
What is important is to act quickly. the more time goes by, the worse it will be. You need to show that you are the good parent. This means doing what’s right in all instances and not being sucked into her text message games. Remember, it is easy to show a judge a threatening message you sent her and that can derail your father’s rights case. Stay above it, do not stoop to her level. The first step may be to file an emergency petition for custody or possession. A judge will probably order her to disclose her location and appear before the court within a week or two. This is the case in many instances (but not all instances). Then, to find her, you may need to tell the police that you have a court order and that she has kidnapped your child. Once they locate her again, she will appear before the judge and you can calmly describe your issues with her drinking and drug use, etc. But be aware, if you request a drug/alcohol drop from her, the court will probably ask you to do the same, so make sure that you have nothing to hide and are clean as well. Please contact us, this is not a good time to go it alone.
Hey Nicholas,
My ex-wife (she cleaned my bank account then moved across country and filed for divorce, getting full custody) moved with our 7 year old son into a house with one of her boyfriends and refuses to give out her contact number or the address where our son is. Her and her boyfriend taunted me like little children with a toy right in front of my confused son on webcam when he tries to talk to me.
There is a laundry list of sick, immature alienation tactics she is using to “get back” at me for our failed marriage. My son is instructed to no longer answer any questions I ask, and she hovers over him physically whenever I talk to him on webcam. My visits are a pathetic 2 hours a week where her and her boyfriend treat me rudely in front of our son. My son has developed behavior problems in school and acts bizarrely around adults and children alike. It’s killing me inside. I have tried countless genuine approaches to reach out to her for the good of our son, and she emailed me back nothing but a meme of a mentally handicapped person as a response.
I’m saving money to bring her to court. My questions are:
What are my rights to know her address? What should I do if she’s withholding that information? What kind of evidence do I need? I’m in NYC and she’s in Connecticut.
How long has this been going on? You have the right to file where you lived with her and your child and ask the court to return the child to your state. She normally does NOT have the right to just pick up and move your child out of state! However, if you have waited 6-months or a year or something, you may have forfeited your rights to petition the court to bring the child back. Waiting to do something is the worst thing anyone can do, so I really hope that you get started immediately doing whatever you have to do to get the help you need. As far as the nasty webcam situation, why don’t you make sure that you have proof of this behavior so that the judge can see what the mother is all about. You have the right to spend time with your son without them present, and you have the right to ask them to send your son back to New York – but you must act immediately or you will lose your right to this! Contact us by the form on our site and speak to a lawyer immediately.
I am the non custodial parent and in the agreement it states I must give her 24 hours notice in order to see my daughter. Which I think is fair.
However, I want my daughter to visit my house and my ex wife says no she is not ready. So I suggested that I come over and visit. We both have to agree on the locations to meet, but I am asking her to drop her off at my place. Does she have that right in Maryland? My daughter is 5 years old.
First of all, a parenting agreement that does set a specific schedule (such as every other weekend from Friday at 6:00pm until Sunday at 6:00pm) is a terrible idea. This leaves the door open to her always saying it was not enough notice or she already had made plans. You need to modify the parenting plan or visitation agreement, and this probably requires an attorneys help so that this does not happen in the future. Contact our team by filling out the form on the site or calling us for a local attorney. Also, in Maryland, as in many other states, a person that unreasonably denies visitation in violation of a judge entered court order can find themselves in contempt of court and face serious penalties. The best move would be to hire an attorney, file a petition to modify the parenting plan, and ask that she be held in contempt of court for violating the court order by denying you visitation. Get started right away, the longer you wait to enforce this, the worse off it will be for you.
We live in Kentucky-out children our 15 and 13. our current visitation schedule has out children with me 9 nights and their Dad 5 nights. The kids have discussed wanting to change the amount of time spent at their fathers to an every other weekend situation. In Ky do kids have a day in the schedule?
Than you
Children normally have some type of say in the parenting schedule depending on their age and maturity level. Normally, judges are not thrilled about bringing children into the courtroom for a variety of reasons: 1. it can be intimidating to be in court, 2. the judges don’t like forcing a child to say something that might make it uncomfortable to be around the other parent, 3. kids don’t always know what is best for them (that’s the adults job). Teenagers can be picky but the age of them does mean something to the judge, but a judge will do whatever he or she thinks is in the best interests of your kids regardless of what the kids or even you have to say about the matter. It is probably a good idea to file a petition for modification of visitation and present these issues in the proper written format so that the judge can call you and him in and make a decision. Follow this link for more information on Kentucky’s laws: Kentucky Family Law
My fiance’s oldest childs mom is refusing to let him see his son until his son goes to consouling. he is 4years of age and has a problem with back talking his mother is stating that it is coming from his father however having a child of my own it is not just a single persons fault nor can you put the blame on someone when there are other people constantly around him. My question to you is if it is on papers from a judge from child support court a year ago that he is to get him saturdays at 6pm and bring him back at 6pm on tuesday by law can she refuse his visitation? she has kept him from his son for almost 2 months now with no excuse other than he has to wait until the son goes to consouling, please respond via email. Thank you, Felicia
Felicia, your son can not wait any longer, he needs to file an emergency petition for visitation and a petition for contempt for her disobeying the courts order. The longer he waits on filing, the more it looks to the judge that he really doesn’t care. This need to be done this week. there is no reason to deny visitation unless imminent harm is likely, and even then, calling the police or filing a motion in court is the preferable step. the fact that she did not do this shows that she is trying to alienate him from his child and deny him his fathers rights. Please contact our team members by filling out the form on our site to have an expert contact you within 24-hours. Don’t wait – this need to be done immediately!
help please!! arkansas resident? if i file a contempt of court for my ex and realise its hard on the kids? what are the rules and guideline if you drop the charges and any payment need to apply to court? thanks
i got commenyt need answer, got divorce and not aware of the custody agreement, now after several months instead a tahnk you from the ex, i got a list of complain and repeating the custody agreement. So i call the judge office ask what she talking, i was told by the clerk to request for court files, comply hold and behold there is one> when picking up time i told the ex she have to take me to court before she can take our daughter. Upon reading every thing on the file, she violsates a lot of iy and i dont agree to what is in there? now i file for contempt of court so i can have her explain cause quit communication and taking the kids? now she counter saying i was in contempt and in violations? is that addmissable to court? thanks joe
Take it from me and the years of experience dealing with situations just like this: The first step is getting the court file and reading the judgment that was entered! If she is violating the judgment, yes, you can file to have her held in contempt of court. Basically, the judge will yell at her and force her to abide by the custody judgment or she could do jail time. Visitation interference is a crime. Better call an attorney quick.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge! We love when experienced family law attorneys and other people share their experiences to help others with their questions.
I have a few questions regarding my custody agreement with my daughter’s father. First of all, we went through the lawyers and came up with a modification for child support and custody. He recently spent 6 months in jail, in which i did not receive any child support, and had been supporting my daughter 100%. He has been out since March of last year, but still is not stable to where he has her 100% and only makes an effort to see her once a week, for about 4 hours. Also, he only calls her at the most of one time a week, maybe 2-3, if he remembers.
Does this result in me pretty much having rights over her? TIA
I have a situation with the mother of my 4 year old great niece, since the death of her father she verabally agreeded to ongoing visitation of my great niece, but there are times when she may not have a good day or good weekends she will not allow me to see or visit he. We are bonded since birth they both stayed with me with my nephew Up until his death in July 2013. Now she at times do not want the continued visitation, is there anything within a court request for visitation of the 4 year old in the state of Maryland? Seeking continued visitation because my 4 year old niece ask to see me and she is going thru emotional changes because of her mother going back and forth of allowing her to visit.
Please is there any advise or assistance that you may can provide?
Thanks
I am worried I am going to get in trouble by withholding my two daughters, 8 & 4, from their father this weekend due to severe concerns, but I hope the judge will see I’m not trying to be mean and take time away, I am just concerned. I have heard s lot of stories of him and his girlfriend using drugs for one. For two, I am worried about domestic violence between him and his girlfriend. My daughter told me a story that a couple months ago he locked her out of the house, they were yelling and screaming and the girlfriend was crying. The kids got sent to their room, and she said it sounded like someone got hit. My best friend was with me when this was told so I’m getting an affidavit from her to show the judge. I also have a text message from him a few months ago saying he kicked his girlfriend out, she’s going psycho and if she hits him he calling the cops, which I will print and show the judge. He moved a couple months ago and didn’t tell me, so he no longer live with his dad so there aren’t extra eyes on the kids which worries me. I have asked him 3 times for his address do I know where my kids are in case of emergency and he will not give it to me. So, I filed a motion to get it and that im suspicious of domestic violence. Even his grandma told me she was arrested a few months ago for hitting him and he went and bailed her out. I am not trying to keep my kids away from him to be mean, I’m just concerned and worried, but also don’t want the judge to get mad at me for not sending them this weekend, I hour she sees I have a ligit reason for keeping them until it hearing in a couple weeks. I’m also afraid of how he is going to react towards me after he sees the motion filed which says suspicion of domestic violence. I also want to ask for a drug test, due to all the hear say going around about their drug use. I am worried the judge is going to wonder why I’m now all of a sudden taking action, but honestly I was afraid of how he would react, get the kids in trouble for telling me about their fighting, and noe that he has moved there are no other watchful eyes on them. I asked 3 times for his address and he would rather let me withhold them then provide the address, which makes me wonder what he is hiding… Something going on at his house or cops after him that he doesn’t want anyone to know his real residence… Just need some input as to what others think of this situation please!
My girlfriend a I have been separated for a couple months now. We were living under the same household so can still see my kids and sill be around them. I ha just got out of surgery over an incident that she brought to our house when she left the kids at home by themselves at night while she went to work. She left her 13yr son watch her 7yr son and my 2yr daughter I just couldn’t leave them there so I stayed the night when she got off work. she came home at 2am in the morning with two guys from her work who assaulted me cause I was questioning her about leaving the kids home alone by themselves. It’s been 2 weeks since I been out of surgery and I tried making contact with her so I can see m son an daughter but she is refusing in getting in touch with me so I can see them. I don’t think this is right at a cause my kids have nothing to do with the situation I just would like to see them. I been thinking In filing for joint custody. Is there anything else I can do so I can see them cause what she is doing very childish and ignorant I got thrown out a house that I been living and paying bills there for 4rys.
I been fighting in court now for 4 years now. My son’s father is a level 3 sex offender trying to get full custody of his son. His father is not allowed around kids or schools or anything. He has to do a every yr photo and all and yet the courts are giving him rights to everything. How can I fight this? He hasn’t called his son in over 2 years now and been telling the courts he has which is a lie. Telling the courts he isn’t in school another lie he is registered just on a waiting list . I am also going through a divorce as well. His father lives n NY and i have told the courts that i cannot afford to go to NY all the time it would cost me over 600 to go which i dont have and they don’t seem to listen at all. there are giving him visits over the summer, holidays etc i cant afford that and they know this. Is there a way I can fight this at all?
My 3 kids has been living with their dad for 2 1/2 years and I usually visit my kids every other weekend , then it’s every weekend but now since they’ve started school I barely get to see them . I’ve bought my kids shoes and clothing for school , and when I do get to see my kids on the weekends I take them out, I want more time with my kids , when I try to try to visit there was always an excuse that my kids not home or I’m not allowed to take them . My ex and I have not gone to court for custody because we didn’t think we need it but now my ex have been keeping my kids from me and since my kids has been living with my ex (their dad) for that long , if I file for custody when I have custody of my kids?
i have this same thing i let his dad get a easy with it it has been 14 years in for the last 3 he has not let me see them i think if you have jab a place to live for you in them there is no reason you can’t fight for them
I have been separated for now 4 year. I have a 4 year old daughter with my ex. We went to court to set up visitation and child support. We have had no problems with child support but with the visitation he has not followed all the rules when he has her. But now that I want to move from Illinois to Missouri he is having a problem with it. She is going to start preschool so he wont be able to get her every weekend like he is right now. i have agreed to let her see him every other weekend and mostly all holidays since they are on the long weekends as well. I don’t mind celebrating on different days. its the meaning that counts. Can he really stop me from moving? Is there anything i can do show that this move is in the best interest for my daughter? i will be closer to my distant family, i have a job lined up, it is in the country so less crime. i dont know what to do.
You cannot move out of state if he doesn;t want you to. It is his RIGHT to see his child every other weekend,and it doesn;t even matter if he wamts to do it just to spite you.That is the law,but regardless of the law,he should WANT desperatly to see his daughter as much as possible,and generally speaking,you sound like a really good ex in letting him have her every weekend and every holiday weekend,but moving out of state will KILL the father daughter relationship.Is he a bad guy? Is he a good guy? If he is a good guy and loves his daughter,you must consider the pain that moving his daughter so far away will cause to him. Good luck with everything and make sure to put your childs needs before your own.
Here is the situation of current….my boyfriends mother is non compliant of court ordered visitation. The order says that my boyfriend has joint physical custody of the child which lives with us for the majority of the time with visitations scheduled for the mother on every other weekend. In the past she has left the state with the child during her visitation and did not tell the father of her where a bouts. Police were involved and we had tracked her down and found his son. Back in court he took her visitation down to every weekend to every other. Now the order says that we drop him off at his grandmoms job and the mother is to return him on sunday at five at a location she picked. Last visitation she never showed to the location with the child so we went to the residence. We waited as we felt we were being sent off by the family and her as they said they didnt know her whereabouts. She finally showed walking funny down the street with three kids all under 9 including the child in question at 10pm in a dangerous area of chicago. Upon receiving the child he was dirty and looked to have contracted conjunctivitis. The mother smelled of alcohol and was speaking in a slurred voice. Long story short we took the child to the er and had his eye treated. We have stacks of evidence, pictures and such that show her as an unfit mother. What can be done he is stressing out every time we drop his son off not knowing if he will be returned or if he will be safe. the child also states he is hit when there.
I called my Ex to pick up my daughter due to almost loosing a house and almost getting a divorce so that he could take my daughter for a couple of weeks so that I can get some things together of which I did. Now he refuses to return her stopped paying child support as soon as he took her and said she is 15 so she can choose where she lives. Now mind you in this time she has been showered with gifts, conerts amussement parks he drives to pick up all her friends so of course its easier there. He says I have no rights since she chose is this right.
This will also cause her to change schools and the one she is going to now guarentees she get her associates degree by highschool graduation
If you have a court ordered divorce agreement,and he is not following it,you can take him to court and make his life miserable. remind him of that
my husband and his ex wife had a visitation set up at the time of it they both living in washington. my husband now live in idaho. the ex wife says since he moved the visitation is now invalid. is that true. The summer visitation was set up he got the kids for 3 week and then she got them for 3 week and then he got them for 2 week and she got them for the last two week. He also got labor day weekend. he asked her several time if he could take the last two week because of living in Idaho and since he got labor day. She kept saying she had to think about it and she would get back to him. He even asked her what week he be picking the kids up and she never reply. So since she never reply we figured that the last two week was okay. now she just text and said that he lost his visit since he didnt show up for it.. What can he do now. He would showed up if she would of been honest and say no she wouldnt change week with him
Now that he has moved out of state, he needs to file a Petition to Modify Visitation. When you live in the same state, visitation orders can stay the same. But, if the visitation needs to be changed, then he should file for a modification because of his move.
We are planning on doing a new parenting plan since we live in idaho. but for the current parenting plan since the current plan didnt give exact date it just said that my husband got the kids for the first 3 week then his ex got 3 week and then he got 2 week and then his ex got 2 week and we asked her if we could get the last two weeks because we got labor day and would be easier for us but she gave a answer so we firgure it was okay so are you saying because he didnt pick the kids up on the 4th he loses his visit even thou we asked her several time and she kept saying i would think about it and get back to you and never did. we asked her like 6 different time.
It all depends on what exactly the parenting plan specifically says. Why don’t you get a copy of the parenting plan in front of you and give our team a call.
i have sole and physical custody of my child. I am planning on moving back to my home country in a few month. My ex-husband has visitation rights and does not pay child support. I hired a attorney that wrote him a certified letter to let my ex know about me planning on moving and also sent him a non certified letter. This was back in may. The laywer said I am free to move with my son however I need to figure out visitation with my ex husband. I told him I am not planning on not letting my child not see his dad or be in contact with him. I simply can give my child a better future where i am from. What is the next step that I need to be doing?
Hi, I have not yet divorced my husband and as far as he knows I want us to stay together and make things work, we have a 4 yr old daughter and have been married now for 7 years. He does not know that I’ve wanted a divorce for 4 yrs now and have been counting down the days until I felt the time was right. He does not know this because I have pretended to be happy even though he is very difficult to live with and is without a doubt verbally and psychologically abusive (he’s never physically hurt me, but has been very aggressive and uses his size/strength to intimidate me). I’ve done this for the protection of my daughter because I worry about how she will be cared for by him since he’s done NONE of it so far. However, things are escalating and he is berating and insulting me every day now…many times in front of our daughter even though I am pleading with him to stop until she is not around.
He has “joked” over the years about disappearing with her. Asked what would I do and do I think I could ever find them and isn’t it better to know they are with a parent who loves them and can’t that be good enough for me? He’s commented that it should NOT be considered kidnapping as long as its a parent. And more recently said he understands “why Dad’s kidnap their kids when c*** ex-wives try to limit their time together.” I’ve been terrified for years that he will take her and disappear. I’ve endured his abuse because i can’t stomach the thought of him taking her like that. he’s threatened that if i don’t agree to 50/50 days between us…and if i try to get more time than he does or limit his time in any way “I’ll be sorry”. I also understand that judges don’t like when parents try to do that either, I don’t want to be the bad guy in front of the judge and risk losing her so of course I worry about what, if anything, should even be said about these fears. I feel like I’m in a no win situation, so I stay in this awful marriage, a complete wreck inside because I feel like its the only way I can say for sure that my daughter is safe and where she belongs. I absolutely will do this with the help of a lawyer, i understand its worth every penny and there is no bigger investment I will make for the rest of my life than this.
Call our team of expert divorce lawyers right now. Get things ready, and leave your husband with your child – but do so with a safe place for the two of you to live (not a shelter, that’s how you lose custody). Get things in order and make sure it’s done right.
My child’s father changed the visitation schedule on me for 4 months. He took sat after work j til Sunday at 6 when he was supposed to take her fri night. He never knew when he was going to pick her up because he didn’t know when he got off and this was troubling for me because I need to have a plan on when my sister needed to be available to watch her of I work since I only work the weekends she is with him. I basically said he needs to pick her up fri night or he forfeits unless he just takes her Sunday and that if he finds he has a Saturday off amd cam take her Friday to let me know. He notified me he would pick her up fri. She stayed at his friends house overnight til he got off sat and he did this for two of his visits. My child dies not want to stay at this persons house….she is uncomfortable now there for reasons I won’t discuss. I told him I am keeping her with me fri nights and he can have her sat non later than 1:30…picking her up from me or my sister who is my primary care for her while i work…which he has done for 4 months. He also refuses the information of who she would be staying with….this makes me uncomfortable in sending her. What do I do?
Long story short, I divorced my wife a few years back. She did not want to have our son because she would rather go to school. I ended up getting Sole Custody and legal decision making rights as well as child support against her via default. Well some time later I tried to make to make things work with her(we lived together at the time) and signed a joint custody agreement. In this current agreement there is no stated primary custodial parent, there is also nether parent listed as having say if an agreement can’t be reached for education and medical. My son has primarily lived with me for over a year and he went to Kindergarten last year under my care, I have paid all expenses. We cannot agree to where he will go to school, he is already registered in the same school he went to under my care. She has also tried to blackmail me into agreeing with her by saying she will withhold him from me (she already did for the fourth of July, he was with her new husbands parents and she was in another state). So being that an agreement can’t be reached and his primary residence is with me (I claimed him on taxes, he is on state insurance through me, and he went to school with me last year) can I withhold him until school starts? There is no parenting plan set in the current agreement, only in the original sole custody agreement. She has already stated that she will withhold him from me if I disagree with her, and he is currently in my care. I filed a Petition to Modify Legal Decision Making today but we will not go to court for at least a month and school starts on the 6th of August. What do I do???
Step children
Hello, my husband has a court ordered visitation set up with his children, he pays his support every week and buys them girls anything they need as far as school clothes, shoes, supplies and things throughout the year. This past year the mother of the children on multiple occasions has refused him his visitation weekend with his girls. Also, she has taken some of his holidays from him. She tells him that if the girls do not want to come they don’t have to, that it is their decision. The girls are 8 and 14. She also tells them things that are not true about their dad to try to make them hate him and not want to come. We know this because the girls have expressed this to us, along with other things like them knowing their mother does drugs. With that being said, what can we do for him to get his visitation back with her denying it to him? And also, would a guardian ad litem be a good idea for this situation?
Call us right away. If there is a court order for visitation and she is denying it, she can be held in contempt. Little kids do not get to decide what they do for visitation, the parents and court does. If they don’t want to go, their mother has a duty to force them. Call us now.
My childs father dropped her off after his weekend visitation and I though I could smell alcohol. I later asked my daughter and she said he wasn’t drinking while driving but then said he did drink BEFORE he was driving. Our court papers already state there is to be no one drinking alcohol while with the child. What can I do to protect my child. I feel like she is in danger and I can’t do anything until something happens!
My daughters mother just moved with my daughter to Texas from Illinois, where we have both lived since she was born. My daughter is almost 17, I pay child support through the courts and have established paternity by signing voluntary acknowledgment of paternity since birth. We do not have a formal custody agreement, but I have always had my daughter the entire summer, and on holidays. Until now, she lived about 2 hours away from me.
Without having a formal custody agreement, what is my recourse? Was it lawful for the mother to move her out of state without my consent? If not, what should I do?
FOR BITTER MOTHERS It’s so sad that mothers put a price on your children’s head just to get back at your husband FOR WHAT EVER HE DID Wrong TWO RIGHTS DONT MAKE WRONG. And you mothers don’t let the kids see their Father Do you No that a child more Happy to see their Fathers.it sad Mothers Like to ABUSE THE SYSTEM for their selfish gains ALL YOU MOTHERS SHOULD BE ASHAME. OF THE SELF YOU CALL YOUR SELF MOTHERS.
I was engaged for a year. He lived in mississippi I moved there and resided there for 4 months and we broke up amd moved home to Texas. When I got here I founded out I was pregnant. I have lived here the whole 9 months and now my son is 9 months old. His father came when he was born signed birth certificate ect. And has not been back since. I fild for child support thru Texas but the had to send it to MS because my sons father was never a resident of Texas. My question is, where will visitation be set? My son is 9 months old and doesnt even know his father. Since the child support got sent to MS do they have the authority to set and enforce visitation when my son has never even been there?
My parents are coming to town, I’m asking my ex for a switch and offering another weekend. She won’t accept until I give her an extra day also; a day she has asked the judge for and he had already said no. Now she is threatening criminal contempt charges if I don’t go with the original date. The order says alternate weekends, not specific dates (she’s upset because it’s the 4th of July weekend) I can’t let my parents fly out here for the first time in 3 years and not see their grandchildren. CPS took the children from her, I have full physical custody, joint legal. Will this go anywhere? I’ve have shown I’m the parent that is willing to, compromise for the past 10 years, but the kids being taken from her was the last straw.
My 10 year old daughter has never met her biological father. My husband, her step father, has raised her as his own child since she was 4 months old. He is the only father she has ever known. Now, suddenly her birth father has gotten in contact with me and wants to meet her. She is not interested in meeting him. What rights does he have as her birth father, compared to the rights my husband has as the man who has raised her? How should I proceed with this?
Me and my husband are still married but been separated for 3 yrs I let our 6 yr old daughter spend the weekend when he txt me Sunday night and said he wasn’t gonna give her back I have filled paperwork for the divorce but he hasn’t let me see her since we still married can I pick.up my daughter at the babysitter since the sitter is his girlfriend what can I do thank u.
If my ex-wife withheld my weekend visitation for my child misbehaving but then offered me make-up visitation time, do I still have a case to file a contempt of court motion? I want to be able to see my child consistently, but my ex-wife has made it clear she will deny visitation if she thinks it is necessary.
Background: She did this to me before a couple years ago and I did nothing about it. And when we first divorced she witheld my visitation for four months because she did not like my girlfriend at the time. I took her to court and won make-up visitation time but she was not penalized.
You will not be held in contempt. It has to be excessive
My ex-husband has not paid child support in 6 months he I found out he lost his old job so I felt sorry for him thinking it was okay to not pressure him for money but I recently found out he has a job and just haven’t been paying his support but he comes and get by daughter bi-weekly even though there is no order for that also he buys her things when she is with him and I don’t want him to use that as an excuse to stop paying child support so my question is can I keep my daughter away from him because of the deceit he did not trying to provide financially just because of me but with holding funds from her I stead what should I do
Child support and child custody are two separate issues. You can not violate the court order if it states when he has visitation. If there is a child support order in place and he is not paying, go back to court, file a petition for rule to show cause, and get the support you deserve. Contact us right away and get a free consultation!
The mother of my fiances child refuses to let him see his child, now my fiance and i are both active military and right now the mother of his child is in naval training and the child is currently with her mother who also refuses to let him call or see his child. Now my fiance pays child support there is no court order stating when he can and cannot see his son, they were never married, but they are separated. He wants to at least see his son or fight for custody of him. How can he go about this?, is it possible or will he never get custody even if he fights or him?
He can get some rights and he should speak with our father’s rights experts right away! Filing a Petition for Visitation is the first step to getting your father’s rights – don’t wait any longer, speak to us and we will put him on the path to getting the visitation he deserves.
hi. my ex boyfriend is willingly signing over full custody of our child to me but we have no idea what we need to fill out. everything i find about it has to do with going to court and lawyers and whatnot but neither of us can afford all of that and since we are not fighting for it and he is willingly giving me full custody, do we HAVE to go to court to have it done or can we just fill out papers and hand that over to where those need to go?
oh and this is in Illinois by the way.
If there is inadequate care for my children for just one visitation weekend can I refuse that weekend and arrange for the following weekend to make up for that time missed. My children will be in the care of a 14 year old for about 6 hours and I am very uncomfortable with the arrangement since no other adult supervision will be provided.
Ordinarily it is ok to have make up times if there is a good reason for doing so. However, being worried about a 14-year old babysitter probably does not rise to that level of an emergency. Babysitters are a normal part of having kids, and this is pretty much what a judge would decide as well. Child custody issues like this may seem like a big deal at the moment, but it would probably make you look like the bad guy in the situation for filing an emergency for this type of reason. Sometimes its best to let some things go so that you can live to fight another day! Good luck and hang in there.
I want to know what will happen if you try to serve the custodial parent with court paper but they are return because it was an old address. They were sent in the mail after being sent certified mail. The child or the parent doesn’t live there but they are still in the area somewhere. What will happen in court?
Probably nothing. The other parent needs to have notice of any type of court hearing before the court can do anything. If you are looking for a way to find out where that person lives, please contact our preferred Private Detective Agency at: http://www.yougotservedchicago.com
They are one of the most affordable detective agencies nationwide and only charge $35 for skip traces so you can locate that parent and have them properly served.
Good luck!
I am married with a step son his father has had temp custody for 7 years. we have followed every visitation and never keep him from his mother in till now. She has a horrible living condition and is living with drug heads. she is also trying to lie on us. do we have a right to not let him go to her house anymore ?
Do not violate a court order! If there is a problem with visitation at the moms house, go to court and bring up the situation with the judge in an emergency hearing. Child custody help is available by speaking with one of our family law attorneys right away.
Filing a petition to suspend visitation is your first step,the next would be asking the judge to appoint a child representative so that they can investigate the home the mother is living in and provide a report to the judge.
My son fathered a child with a woman that lives in Georgia and he lives in Missouri and the child was born in Missouri. Since they have never lived in the same state what rights does he have as far as custody? The child is now 11 months and the mother has filed child support. The mother has also blocked my son’s phone number and refuses to respond to anyone. She ultimately want him to move to Georgia and be with her (the mother) to see his daughter. What rights does he have as far as seeing his daughter and being a part of her life. He has two other children that live in Missouri with him and she basically wants him to abandon them and move to Georgia with her. What can he do? thanks for your help!
Actually the child was born in Georgia and he did sign the birth certificate.
He will need to respond to her Petition for Child Support and then either contact one of our attorneys in Georgia (he needs a Georgia attorney, make sure he requests that on our form with a Georgia Zip code where SHE lives with the child!!!) or file, on his own, the response. The next step is then to file a Petition for Visitation with that court in Georgia and request both telephone or video calls with the child, and probably day-time visits in the State of Georgia until the child is old enough to have out of state visits. As far as custody is concerned, our father’s rights attorneys can fight for him, but keep in mind that a young child who has lived its entire life (albeit 1-year) with mom will probably remain with mom unless there is a compelling reason to change that, especially to change states. A compelling reason would be serious physical abuse, child endangerment, drug use, etc., things like that. Call our Georgia father’s rights attorneys right away.
Hello
I stay in Oranjemund Namibia, myself and my daughters father had our little girl in 2011 we were not married and til today still not married. we went apart in 2013… I alow my daughters father to see here when ever he want to he is always welcome at our home to see his daughter. My main question is… May I refuse for my 2 year old to go alone to her dad without my supervision? I have to problem him taking her to the beach for exsample but I want to be with.
My daughters father comes and sees her when it fits him.. sometimes for a whole week he wont come to here ( but he is always welcome)
Please give me advice?
In America, denying visitation ca get you into hot water, and in some states it is actually a crime. We do not work with anyone in your country, but I would suggest searching for a bar association where attorneys list their specialties and calling one of them. Good luck!
Hi I was wonder what can be done if the other parent doesn’t show up for court ordered visitation? For example, the other parent has not contacted or called for a year. He is supposed to have them every other weekend but has not shown up. What do we do if he calls and wants get back to seeing them following the visitation order that he neglected for a year? Thanks
Do not disobey an order from court! That is the fastest way to get yourself held in contempt of court! A good option would be to go to court and ask that the visitation schedule be changed right now since he has not complied. One of our expert family law attorneys can help by putting together an order that allows you to force him to provide you with advance notice of having visitation so that you can schedule your life with your child.
I found myself in a bad situation with an abusive spouse a few years back and realized it was a dangerous place for my child… I sent her to live with her father for her safety. in leaving my abusive partner I found myself in trouble with the law. I went to prison for a year. in which time I send numerous letters and gifts to my child only to find out that the father had moved.. left no forwarding address. I got out a month ago and have been trying to contact my daughter the whole time. he has moved. he has my phone number blocked. he has left me no way to see my daughter or even know where she lives. we have a parenting plan that allows joint custody. I know I have made some mistakes but that is over and I have paid the price for that. what can I do to be able to see my daughter.
You need to first find out where he is living, and perhaps a private detective can help out with that: http://www.yougotservedchicago.com
The next step is filing a Petition for Visitation or a Petition to enforce your previously entered visitation agreement. Your jail problems put you in a disadvantage, but you should be able to see your child. Contact us right away and let one of our expert child custody attorneys help!
My ex-wife kidnapped my 3 children and ran away with my best friend 13 yrs ago. I only recently found them living in another state, where they have moved from one homeless shelter to another. I tracked down phone numbers and addresses, and sent clothing and money immediately, but shortly after they were on the run again. I have been paying child support for my children steadily for the last 5 yrs, due to a granted divorce on no contest (she ran an ad in the paper), court ordered child support and she got full custody of our children. In the last 6 months I have received word that she moved to a neighboring city but I am afraid to let on that I know for fear she may run again. Do I have rights to see my children and be in their life?
Because its been such a long time before you were able to take action, a judge will be leary about granting you a lot of parenting time. However, what she did was wrong and a court will probably allow you some type of visitation if you file and have her served immediately. Our father’s rights experts can help – get a hold of us now!
My divorce was finalized this month. When it was signed in February, it was an Agreed Decree of Divorce. I didn’t agree, but due to the long history of domestic abuse, and my ex’s constant dragging out of the case, delaying things, refusing to be served by not answering his door, etc, my attorney said to just sign the agreement right then and get it done, and modify later. This agreed decree gives us joint custody with my ex getting every other weekend visits. The problems I’m having is that he continues to try and control me via court and visitation, he was arrested on 8 felonies, 3 misdemeanors, all pending in court right now, including violation of a protective order last year that I had. (Protective order was dropped 4 months later because my ex used it to negotiate a signature with my attorney. I was told to drop the Protective Order, and he would sign the divorce..my attorney at that time said I might as well give him what he wants or he’ll just keep dragging it on….of course he didn’t sign it then, he waited 6 more months) His current girlfriend had her children removed by DHS twice in the last year and has an open case with them where they come into her home once a month to see her kids, who have significant mental health issues from her previous relationship where her ex beat her repeatedly in front of the kids. They have PTSD issues and her son lashes out and punches walls and things when he’s upset. And of course, she picked my ex, a slightly less violent abuser, but an abuser all the same. DHS advised me to cease visitation, but would not put it in writing. Then after their most recent investigation, closed the file, and the worker said “I have to close it after 60 days, and I haven’t received info from the other two counties involved. (my ex lives in another county, and the DHS that removed his girlfriend’s kids from their home is from yet ANOTHER county) I’m sorry. You can file a new investigation request” In March I was granted a new protective order against my ex for my oldest child, who is not his, because we found out he was allowing an adult male access to my daughter and providing rides to facilitate the sex offense. Police are working on new charges for that as well. But when I filed for emergency custody of my youngest, which is his child, I was granted it for 7 days, and when I went back, the judge said he had to protect the father’s rights for visits, dismissed his own order from a week prior, and said I didn’t have grounds for emergency custody based on what he did to my oldest, as it didn’t directly endanger my youngest. He said we are to return to the original arrangement of every other weekend from Fri-Sun. My ex spent the whole week making threats by text message, but doing so in a way that if you read it not knowing him, you wouldn’t understand why it’s a threat. He keeps threatening to constantly take me to court for this that and the other thing. Today, Wednesday, I discovered that my ex and his girlfriend lost in court today in their eviction case, and will be evicted from their home within 3 business days by the sheriff. I’ve been scared for the last two weeks that if I let him take my daughter this Friday, he will refuse to return her Sunday evening, go and file some motion on Monday morning, and keep her as long as he can. My daughter is diagnosed with anxiety, depression, and severe ADHD. She takes medication, and her anxiety and depression were diagnosed after a suicide attempt at age 7 due to stress from our domestic situation. She is 8 now. If he is being evicted, and the order says he is required to provide me with an address where my child will be, and he refuses to provide that before taking her, can I deny visitation? I’m so scared she’s going to get caught up in all of his angry craziness. She’s just a happy sunshiney girl right now, and she hasn’t seen him since the last week in January with all this. I’m so worried that if he decides to try something, she’s going to panic, not have her meds, or access to her counselor, or anything.
This is a difficult situation. If he has been evicted, where is he going to be living? If he has no home to bring your child to, file an emergency motion in court suspending overnight visitation until he has a suitable home. You absolutely cannot withhold visitation from him without first getting the ok from the court – if you do so, you will have put yourself in contempt of court. If he refuses to give your child back on Sunday, he has set himself up for contempt of court for violating the court order. Give us a call, one of our child custody lawyers can help!
My husband was just in court on the 17th and the judge ordered the mother of his two girls to follow and abide by the visitation order. On the 18th my husband went to pick up the girls and they stated they didn’t want to do visitation with my husband. My husband hasn’t seen his daughter since July 26, 2013 and all communication has been broken on the behalf of the mother since mid August due to her deleted their father from their Facebook pages and changing their phone numbers. My husband has always and a great bond with his girls and the very last time they had communication the girls was asking for him to come get them and they couldn’t wait to see him and spend time with him. Now, all of a sudden they don’t want to be with him. Something seems truly suspicions about this to him. Can someone please advise on what his next step is because he really misses his girls and from the interaction with them on the 18th the girls miss him as well but seems as if they’re being pushed or
forced to say they don’t want to spend time with him, the girls ages are 12 and 14?
Whether they want to see him or not, if mom doesn’t force them to go with him, the court can hold her in contempt of court for violating his visitation order. He needs to ask the judge to order her to stop saying negative things around the kids about him as well, this will help too!
Hi…. I need some advice on what to do! Me and my sons father went to child support in 2013 the Jude appointed us joint managing conservators of our son. I have been designated as the conservator of our son. When the court order was finalized he was served at his brother residence…, he is currently not living their anymore. He keeps wanting to come pick up or son at my home but he been remove from my home before. When we went to court we were living together but I was having a hard time with him giving me money to help with our son. He’s been up yo date on payments because they been taking it automatically out of his account. Money is not the issue at this point. I don’t want to encounter him no more so I don’t want him to pick up our son at my house because it’s always argument with him. What worry me the most is that he wants to take our child out of town but he does not have a driver licenses. He been in car accident and has 2 DWI on his record. He did serve time in prison for paintball shooting in a shopping center and hitting child in her head. He still does not have a driver license since it is suspended from his last accident. He has an offense of ( INJ CHILD w/int bodily INDJ) felony 3rd degree. I question him about it and claim that was the paintball shooting accident. When he moved out of my home I found a paper that he has to register as a sex offender I ask him and he claim he didn’t since was a minor at the time it happen. The letter was is from the department of public safety from Austin and it’s for a classified sex offender renewal notice. Do I have a strong case to get him under supervision right? I only worry because he’s been going back yo his old ways. Just two weeks ago he got arrested for driving reckless and a DUI.
Speak to one of our family law attorneys and get started immediately – your child’s safety is on the line here! You need to request that the judge grant him only supervised visitation – if he has a sex offender status and/or s breaking the law by driving with your child in the car, a judge will not be happy. Speak to one of our child custody lawyers right away!
Help, my sons father moved to a new place and he picks up our son every other weekend does he has to provide a current address where he will be at with our son? Our son does stay him over night. And what do I need to do if I don’t want him to pick up our son at my address? I need advice
He is supposed to provide the address of where and who he is living with. If he refuses, go to court and tell the judge. They will straighten him out.
My sons father is still living with his parents trying to get his life together. my sons father’s parents refuse and deny any visitation between my son and his father. is there anything i can do legally? im at a loss and its hurting my son more than anything else.
I’m confused, its not his parents decision if he sees the child or not, its yours and the courts. What exactly is going on, and can you give one of our local child custody attorneys a call and see how we can help?
I have primary custody. My ex sees the child 4 days a month. It’s a battle every time visitation day rolls around. His drivers license is suspend for non payment of child support and now that a court date has been scheduled by lChild Enforcement agency he started paying. He is afraid of going to jail now. He had not paid for a year and is over $9,000 behind. I have always let him see our child on visitation days. However, since he moved to his new girlfriends house he wants me to meet him halfway between her house and mine. I refused because my child is not suppose to be spending the night at her house due to them not being married. He has been in trouble with the court before because of this very same thing with a different girlfriend. Well, he told me the court orders said to meet at the court house which we have done before, as well as other places. I could not find this in the orders anywhere but had been doing it just to keep the peace. So to the problem, our daughter who lives out of state was visiting this week and she had my car so I could not meet him at the place we had been meeting. I asked him to pick up our child at my place, and told him I didn’t have transportation. My place is appx 8-10 mins further. He said No. My daughter arrived 15 mins after scheduled pick up time and I texted him back to say I could be at the meeting place and he claimed he went to the place and I wasn’t there ( duh, I told him three times I didn’t have transportation ) …He said his girlfriend had a dinner to go too ( Bunko is what her Facebook said) and he couldn’t meet me now ( no drivers license). So I offered again on the next day scheduled and on the next day and he said he was hiring a lawyer. I asked him 4 times to meet me at the regular place he wanted and not only did he refuse he didn’t even call our child to talk to him. What will a judge do since this was the first time I wasn’t there on time? Wasn’t it just as wrong for him not to try too meet me any during that weekend. The total time I was without transportation was 35 mins from drop off time. Thank you for responding, the stress my ex puts me through is affecting my health.
Difficult situation. If he is not complying with court orders, this does not necessarily take you off the hook. However, because of his inconsistencies, you have good reason to have refused his demands. Keep in mind, a judge may not see it that way. In a judges eyes, you both are guilty of wrongdoing and not following the courts order, so it is possible either one of you may be in trouble. contact one of our expert child custody lawyers right away!
My son and his ex-girlfriend have a child. There was a paternity hearing which proved he was the father..she had the birth certificate changed to reflect his last name. This happened in Oklahoma. Now, all of them live in Wisconsin. My son is trying to get visitations with his daughter, but the mom want’s to meet his girlfriend (which is understandable), before she allows visitation. The problem is she demands that he takes off work (recently he started a new job) and that he and his girlfriend travel three hours, not once, but twice, so she can meet her. He has asked her to meet them half way, but she refuses. He was in prison for seven years, but was totally discharged in Sep 2013. As soon as he found a job, he started making child support payments and hasn’t missed one since. What can he do just to get visitation rights?
When did the move to Wisconsin happen and was it allowed via court order or your sons permission? The removal process is not easy to win in court, and if she did not have his or a judges permission to move out of state with their child, and it happened recently, he should file a Petition to Return the Minor child to the State of Oklahoma. Even if he intends to allow her to stay there, he can use this as leverage to gain the father’s rights he deserves and get some type of order in place allowing visitation in exchange for dropping enforcement of her returning to Oklahoma. He can’t do this alone, so he will need help from family to pay for a father’s rights lawyer – give us a call right away.
Lots of good questions here.. My situation is slightly the opposite here ..my ex and I have joint custody which was awarded just 14 days ago. It started because she WANTED to move out of state and I file a emergency order for her not to take our son until we had an enforceable agreement in place and she could prove she was stable as she was discharged from short term behavior health facility. The order was granted and we had our hearing 14 days later. The courts gave our son to her with no questions asked and granted me a mere two weekends a month. I have cared for him since I returned home from basic training he was three weeks old we lived in the same house , I got my own place in Jan 2014 my son and his mom stayed at the residence we were in together. I had our son every weekend from Friday to Sun and two evenings a week as well. Then with her hospitalization I had him for a total of 27 days straight. Our son showed no signs of distress while being away from his mom and he settled into a very nice secure schedule. Since our hearing I had my first weekend with him, Mom allowed me to keep him beyond the time stated in the court agreement , now she is allowing me to take him for an entire week which is not in the agreement. we have another hearing in April and I intend to ask for every other week visits… she says she wont give it to me because she wants to have more time that I get. Now seeing she already gave me more time will this help me when we go before the judge. She lives about 2 1/2 hours from me and it would be great for our son to spend real solid time with me. He is much happier and settles back into the schedule just fine. I should add he is 6 months old. We are hearing report that he s not settle very well with his mom she constantly tells me how he wont sleep and he is fussy all the time she is overwhelmed .
It’s always a difficult situation when a child is as young as this. Get one of our father’s rights attorneys to talk to you about your options. I think your situation may call for the opportunity of extended visitation time, depending on the state you live in.
I have been dealing with my ex husband since 2009 verbally, and meantly abusing my two boys whom are now 5,7 years old. Now that he has moved into a one bed room apt with hjs girlfriend, newborn baby, and his friend the situation has only gotten worse. Beside my two boys witnessing domestic violence between thier dad and his girlfriend they are also allowed to watch rated R movies and play rated M games. Also my youngest son came home a week ago with a mark on his collar bone and he informed me that his dad hit him with a belt there, of course I have once again called DCF and the police. Then that same weekend I had to baker act that same boy because he tried to stab my oldest son. They are both in therapy for behavior disorders that have been caused by long term exposer to the unstable environment at thier dads house. I can go on of things that happen over there but everythung has been douctmented by DCF or the police or the therapist. At this point I am refusing to send them to his house for thier own saftey am in the saftey of doing this? Do I need to have papers drawn up? Please help!!!!!!!!
I am an unmarried father without any court ordered rights and when my son was 4 months old, his mother took off to another state with our child, only giving me 1 weeks notice. I was promised it was only temporary and we came up with a verbal plan for visitation that worked for both of us. As soon as she moved, it became obvious she had no intention of adhering to the plan, so I filed to establish paternity and custody. 3 years later, and we still don’t have anything settled (postponed court dates, cancellations with the promise of settling, etc). I have been denied nearly every visit I’ve ever requested in my home state (hundreds of requests, only 2 visits in 3 years). I’ve been told I can visit my child any time I want in her current home state and have made numerous trips there, but many of those request have been denied too. I should also mention that my child’s mother has blackmailed me into settling for very little time with my son (I didn’t cave), and has filed a false police report saying I watch child porn and could potentially harm my child (case deemed unfounded). My question is, is there any chance I could get primary custody in my home state at this point? Is this behavior by the mother enough to change primary custody and uproot my child from where he’s been living for 3 years? Or would the courts make them move back and give us equal joint custody? Equal cusotdy is what I would prefer because I think it’s best for our son. Do the courts frown on denial of visitation even when a custody order is not in place or does the fact that I have no rights mean my child’s mother can deny me and my child a relationship?
I have a case where the mother is denying visitation even though its court ordered she has put out a tpo which is expired and now she ignores certified court documents sent to home and since u have 30 days to respond she doesn’t and the case closes how can we get her to come to court. The address is correct etc
The mother gets free legal aid but father can’t what is wrong with our system.
I am in a simiakr aiutation she tooks all the benifits and hasnt seen them n ayear doesnt paychild support ive been trying to areamge supervised visits but she refuses that and now she wajt full custody back and ots claiming ive kept the kids from her. She gave them up more than a year ago amd waibed her rights what can I do will they take my kids away ? She is now pregnaye again with no job or house
I have had my daughter since April 2013. Her mother had abandoned her and I went with DFS and local authorities to get her. I recently was awarded sole custody of my daughter. Her mother has made no attempts to contact her since July 2013 not even for her scheduled visitation. She has not called on her birthday nor did she call for Christmas. What can I do since she doesn’t make any contact at all even though I have attempted to contact her numerous times? Oh I am in Missouri btw.
My grandchild has lived with us for the past 3 years. My daughter has custody of him and the dad sees him whenever he wants. He sometimes comes and takes him to swim or for ice cream or whatever and sometimes he keeps him overnight when he can. He didn’t have a car for awhile (and he lived in another town north of us-about 20 or 25 minutes away) and he had a low paying job so sometimes he went for 3 or 4 weeks without coming around but we didn’t care. My daughter was getting assistance from the state so she could get him on insurance and pay his preschool fees and what not. But she never went after the dad for child support because she didn’t want to battle him. (they had a real bad breakup) Anyway, the state ended up going after him for child support and is also going to make him pay back child support now. (around 6,000) He pays $266/mo now and my daughter started using it to pay his kindergarten fee which is 275/mo for all day kindergarten, which he started this year. Well, the dad recently got a good job on the railroad and got a decent car. He picked Cole (the grandson) up a few weekends ago and was supposed to bring him back Sunday. He showed up by himself asking for his backpack and said he took the week off and wanted to take him to school in the morning. (the school is a block away from us) He said he was going to stay at his moms (across town from us) so it wouldn’t be a problem getting him to school. (He’s taken him to school one other time so I wasn’t worried about him getting him there.) We went to pick him up Monday as usual (we have 2 other kids in school and one goes to the same school as cole, which is nice.) and the dad showed up and said he was keeping cole the whole week. It finally came to our attention when my daughter got papers served to her that said the dad had filed for temporary custody and she was only going to have 2 hour visitations.!! He actually claimed that he’s been the sole provider for Cole for the last 3 years and that Cole has lived with him at his moms the whole time. (unbelievable) My daughter got a lawyer and explained the situation to him and he asked my husband if he’d sign an affidavit stating the truth about cole’s residency, and so he did. Now the dad is angry at us for interfering and won’t let us see him either. He gave the school the temporary custody papers and now we can’t even pick him up. We found out that he quickly moved into his moms house and that he never had his name on the lease where he shared an apartment out of town with 3 other guys. So we have an emergency hearing set for January 6th to prove that cole has lived with us this whole time. (the judge tried to get one before Christmas break but the dads lawyer wouldn’t return any calls and the docket was also full) In the meanwhile, cole is begging to come home and doesn’t understand why he cant. AND ITS CHRISTMAS! We went to have a talk with the dad (at his mom’s house) hoping to bring Cole home and we were told that the only way we’d get cole is to agree with his lies. I actually taped the whole conversation (I live in Kansas where only 1 party has to know the conversation is being taped, I believe) and he admitted all of it. He’s trying to get out of the child support and the back child support basically, and he’s using Cole as a pawn. So now, its 2 days before Christmas, Cole is confused as to why he can’t come home, my girls are devastated because Cole is more like their brother than their nephew, and I’m beside myself with grief. So here’s my question………when he brings him over for the lousy 2 hour visit on Christmas eve, what would happen if we refused to let him go back???? My husband and I have an appointment with our own lawyer tomorrow to try to get grandparents rights as well. But I’m more concerned about right now. I want him home. So, what would happen if we just refused once we got him back? Say he calls the police and shows them that paper? Will they make us return him? Someone told me the police wouldn’t get involved because it was a civil matter. That they would just make sure he was safe and that would be it. Is that true?
Thank you.
Tami
If you knowingly violate a court order you will likely be held in contempt of court and fined and possibly even jailed. Not complying with a court order is a bad idea, and will only make you look bad in the eyes of the judge – who, by the way, will be your judge for the entire case. Getting off on the wrong foot here is a bad idea! Get a lawyer, there is no way to beat another lawyer than by having one yourself – there’s a reason they spent 3-years and $100,000.00+ on their education!
What happens if a father has court ordered visitation rights and occasionally the mother denies him the child. The father has called the police and received a couple a police reports. How many police reports does he need to collect in order to go back to court. Also the mother and her boyfriend are trying to get a restraining order against the father claiming that he is harassing and threatening them. Will this affect the fathers visitation rights?
my son called me crying last friday night, he was at his apartment that he shares with his girlfriend and 2 year old son. his girlfriend came home after a night out drinking while he was home with his son, and asked him to leave , my son being a very mellow man just agreed to leave not wanting a scene in front of his child. Then he found out the reason she wanted him to leave was because she was bringing another man home that night.Since then he has come to stay with me, he cries all the time and misses his son. she let him take him overnight last weekend and agreed to let him have him this thursday till saturday. Well today he got a call from a nieghbor of where she still resides(his apartment) that she left thier son in the care of this man she just met and the nieghbor was concerned for his sons safety, because she knows this guy. Me and my son went up there and picked up his 2 year old and not wanting to get into any trouble by getting accused of kidnapping his own son we took the child to her moms house, where the child is uasually cared for while the mom works, and explained that we got a call and we were concerned. well by the time we got there the cops were called and they contacted my son. we waited at his exs moms house for the police and explained the situation. they believed we did nothing wrong and that they shouldnt have even been called.Before all this happened I was not allowed to even pick up my grandson and take him to a park for an hour, she said he doesnt do well with people he dont know and didnt think i could deal with him. I am this childs biological grandma and was not allowed to even spend time with him unless she or my son was there, but she will leave him with a man she just met for the day. To make a long story short, now the mom is withholding thier son from his dad.we went to the court house to file for 50 50 custody and she had already beat us there, the court date is not until feb 11, is there any help for my son to see his son before then? She had initally agreed to no child support(she make triple what my son does) and 50 50 placement, now she is not responding to his text or phone calls..any suggestions
Finding agreement is always the best solution, so things don’t get out of control. But if she is going to fight, he should file an emergency motion for visitation and allege that he hasn’t seen his child in a long time. This will get him in front of a judge in a matter of days, not waiting until Feb. 11. He needs to fight hard and fast to get the fathers rights he deserves.
My sons father has not seen him in over 7 years. He has recently been released from prison on domestic battery charges. (He has multiple other domestic charges, none of them are related to me or my son.) Aside from seeing him twice 7 years ago he had not seen him since he was 6 months old. He is now contacting me telling me he would like (in his words) “Sign over his rights or if he has to pay see his son”. Obviously, he only feels he should see him if he has paid for him. (Which in 15 years I have received $1,500. Which really doesn’t matter, he can keep his money!) He tried to take me to court in 2008 to enforce visitation. (This of course if after he missed 2 visitations and never went to the status hearing.) The judge told him his visitation was revoked and he gave him a list of things to do before he could ask for visitation again. Now, with his new threats of visitation every day I am wondering: Can he get visitation with the domestic charges he has, the fact he has not seen my son but twice in 15 years and does my child have a say in if he wants to see him or not? I have previously paid for a lawyer for the other times he has taken me to court and my lawyer has since passed away. I would like to give my son some reassurance. He is in a panic over the idea of having to spend time with a man he does not know who has a violent past? Anything would be appreciated and thank you for your time.
He may have some rights to visitation but I doubt a judge would force overnight visits in this case. At most, what I would expect, is an every-other week arrangement that is supervised for a few hours. That is normally how these types of cases begin if the judge grants any visitation at all. You would also ask a judge to appoint a guardian ad litem or a child representative who would interview you, dad, and your child to get a feeling what is best for your son. Give us a call and we can go over some details with you.
My husband has visitation during spring, winter and summer breaks as his daughter lives in Colorado with her mom.We live in Pennsylvania. Now that our christmas visit is coming up, she advised him that they are going to California for vacation and that he would have to buy her plane ticket from there instead and that she would not put her on the plane untilt the day after christmas. Is this considered parental kidnapping, or anything of the sort since she is taking her child out of her home state and keeping her away when it is her father’s court appointed time to visit her dad? She constantly breaks the court order and we are in the process of waiting for another court date to try and get custody. But she contstantly breaks the order and seems to not care since she always gets away with it.
Is i get visitation everyother weekend can mother dictate my time. She is telling me the childs grandmother, my mom is not to baby sit or be at her house. My mother did a great job raising me and loves time with my child. This said the childs mother is not aloud to tell me how to spend my time.”
So my question is this, I live in Illinois and my child and mom live in New Jersey, since they have moved we have followed the visitation schedule with no problem, however, now the mom is telling me that my child who is “5” is saying she doesn’t want to come here for my scheduled xmas vacation with her in which I feel her mom is persuading that, but that’s another issue. Now the mom says if child who is 5 says she doesn’t want to come here, she doesn’t have to send her even though its’ court ordered. Can you tell me is that accurate? I would think that since there’s a court order here in illinois that established that, could she legally not send her even though it’s court appointed? Also, because their in New Jersey now and this was entered in illinois, what would be the procedure if she doesn’t follow the order? Would I have to petition courts in N.J now since their there now, or could I go back to where we had everything established? Please any advice on this matter would be helpful
Call us immediately. You have a case where you can enforce the court order here in Illinois. The problem is that she has not violated the order until she doesn’t send the child back for Christmas. An Illinois child custody lawyer would file a petition beforehand alleging to the judge that mom is refusing to follow the visitation schedule and the judge would order her to abide by it. Also, was she granted leave to remove the minor child from the state of Illinois? If not, she may be in violation on those grounds as well. If a court order says you have visitation, it does not matter if a child is 17 years old, you get the child and it is her responsibility to make sure you get your visitation or she will be held in contempt of court. Act fast, there isn’t much time!
My wife recently gave full custody of her daughter to the child’s father. Long story made short, she became extremely rebellious at age 14, out of control, ran away from home and we worried for the safety of the younger kids, who are mine. I carried for the child for almost 10 years. Currently, given the harassments from the child’s father and the disrespectful behavior of the child, we decided not to get involved with either one of them, a decision that did not come easy. My wife was served with child support. She has been a stay at home mom for 10 years. She is currently pursuing self employment in sales to comply with child support, allowing her the ability to balance all her responsibilities. How will this affect her child support? Also, how is her decision to stay away from them affect her parental rights and her support issues? For 2 years she tried to work with her daughter and the father but it became emotionally draining and was beginning to affect the rest of the family negatively, taking verbal abuse from both of them. That is why we chose to keep a distance for the time being. Please advise. Thank you.
My divorce was final several years ago. We had joint custody with me supposed to be getting my son every other weekend. Every time but once I was told no he could not go with me because he had some kind of sports practice or game to go to and the ex was afraid I would not take him to the function. In 5-6 years time I have seen my son 1 weekend and that was even cut short due to the ex insisting on me bringing my son back. He is over 18 now and it is probably a mute point but he has no relationship with me and really has nothing to do with me thanks to her actions. I am wondering what if anything can I do about this? The emotional turmoil I am going through is heart stopping and is very stressful at times. I have learned to deal with the issue but it is still hard to accept at times. Please any information will be helpful. Thank you and have a great day.
I’m sorry to hear about your strained relationship with your son. unfortunately, the time to have done something about this egregious behavior on the part of your ex-wife would have been 5-years ago when he was still a minor and she was violating the Parenting Agreement that the Judge ordered. It is terrible when we hear stories like this because the damage that exes like her to do their children is irreparable at times. What I would have recommended back 5-years ago was for you to have a Petition for a Rule To Show Cause to be filed against your ex for violating the agreement. Yes, you would have been responsible for making sure he got to his sporting events and extracurricular activities, but that would have been tie with him rather than with her. It is a shame that she did this, but unfortunately, there is no recourse in courts at this time for the alienation you now have. Child custody matters and child visitation problems plague many dad’s, which is why it is necessary to always have a father’s rights attorney on your side when going through divorce like this. Best of luck.
My sons dad was granted visitation three days a week and has missed almost every one, taking him very rarely but continually harassing me about stuff not related to our son. I was told by someone that legally after so many missed visits I don’t have to let him have any. Is this true or do I have to continue being verbally abused and harassed by him?
Despite court ordered specified visitation where I am to have our child 4 days per week and one month over the summer, my abusive ex refused to return our child to me 5 months ago and has only allowed me to see our child for 55 hours total in the last 5 months. I keep showing up to collect our child on my specified access days, and my ex refuses to release our child to me, and keeps our child in his home while I am ringing the doorbell trying to collect our child. Or else he telks me that he already has plans for our child on my days to have him. There are prior police reports from 4 years ago when he had breaches of visitation and threatened me that he was going to take our child away from me and not return our child. He claims our child doesn’t want to live with me anymore and says he won’t force our child to see me if our child doesn’t want to. What is the best way for me to handle this?
Your ex is breaking the law. This is called Visitation Interference (check your state here: State Criminal Visitation Interference ) and, in almost every state, is a prosecutable offense that is taken quite seriously. You need to document this by calling the police and detailing every single instance where you have been denied visitation. Then, you need to file a Petition for Rule to Show Cause and ask that the court hold your ex in contempt of court for violating the judges direct court order. Do this soon, waiting any longer will make it look like you don’t care. I would advise speaking with a child custody attorney in your area by filling out the form on our site – its free and you will even get a free consultation.
Good luck!
On March 28 2013 my sons dad came to pick up our 2 boys 7 and 3 for his normal visit. Just this time he was gonna be on vacation and asked to keep them for that week. I didn’t feel there was anything wrong since he did pay child support and was picking up our boys weekly on his days off of work. Well when I called him after his vacation was to over he asked me if I received the letters he left for me on my front door I didn’t know what he was talking about he said to open the front door so I did and there were custody papers and modification of child support. Told me to look at that court date and be there and I was not going to see our boys till then. Is that legal to do and come to find out he moved out of his residents and I have no idea where he lives also he pulled my son out of school without me knowing is that right? Also our 7 year old son has a disability doing all this to him isn’t good. I have no idea where he is going to school at and where there are at. What can I do ? I called to speak to our boys and there father quickly tells me what do I want there happy with him and I will see them once we go to court. On my court papers I noticed that the father of my sons signed the proof of service he is able to do that nor did I get served I opened my front door and there on the ground? Can someone help me with this maybe give me some kind of direction in what to do ?
This is a big deal and unfortunately, a complex area that cannot be answered by simply responding here on the site. Please speak with one of our family law experts who can talk to you and give you some real one on one guidance. Please do so quickly.
I appreciate the quick response as i am very concerned. I have another question. Myself and my childs mother lived in the state of Georgia when we divorced and i was awarded custody and the mother still lives there however my daughter and i have lived in Tennessee since 2000 and the papers i was served with are for a court date in Georgia can i make her have to file in Tennessee (change the venue) without having to hire an attorney ?
I won sole legal and physical custody of my daughter in 2000 and her mother got every other weekend and wednesday evening until 9pm visitation, since that time she has been in and out of my daughters life, in and out of prison and county jail for various things such as drugs (meth & marijuana) and bad checks, she is currently on probation and has recently been charged with violation of probation. I have refused to let my daughter who is now 16 go to her mothers. I have never refused to let her see her she has always been told she was welcome to come see her whenever she wanted and she attended her 16th birthday party recently and just a week ago came to my home to visit her and when i saw she was not under the influence i allowed the two of them to take my vehicle with my daughter driving out to eat to spend time together. Today i was served with papers for a court date for contempt after 13 years. I fear for the safety of my child when she is in her mothers care and am wondering if i am fighting a losing battle trying to make sure her visits are supervised. When my child found out her mom went back to jail this past year her mom told her “I wasn’t doing meth it was only marijuana”
Enforcing supervised visitation with a woman that is putting her own life in danger by taking dangerous and illegal drugs is the right thing to do. If you need help setting this up, our expert child custody lawyers can help. We handle cases like this every day, you are not alone. Stay strong, you have been the foundation of your child’s life. Give us a call for a free consultation if you have more questions or don’t know what next steps to take.
Ok i see you keep saying get an attorney, But what if you cannot afford an attorney? What do you do then? I live in Illinois and it seems there are many avenues for moms to get aid and services from the state and local government and none of these services have a fathers help area. I see a lopsided legal system in this perspective.
Well, I hate to put it this way, but there aren’t that many lawyers that will handle too many cases for free–they’ve got bills, rent, mortgages, etc. to pay like everyone else, so they pick and choose who they want to work for, and many view women as more of a victim than an able bodied man who can at the very least pick up a shovel and earn some income. It’s not necessarily right, but just the way it is. However, many attorneys will take payment plans. As far as legal aid, depending where you live in Illinois, there are clinics that can help you out. If in Cook County, check out the CARPL’s program–its is very helpful and will provide you with example petitions and motions to prepare you for filing your own paperwork. Good luck, and I hope that all goes well. It’s not easy, but you can do it by using resources normally available in your local county court. Go here to check out some help topics and forms: http://www.illinoislegalaid.org/ Good luck!
I Lived in CT with a girl friend. She got pregnant. Well it didn’t work out and my dad got sick so I moved back home to Alabama. Before I left. I took any chance the mother gave me to see my daughter. I payed put of court child support. If I went shopping for my daughter, everything was returned for money. When I told her I was leaving, I asked the mother for visitation when i get settled, she told me she was never going to allow our daughter to stay with me alabama. I left, my father passed away, as I was dealing with that. The mother asked me to give up my rights or she was taking me to court for more child support. I refused. And She did.I tried to fight it but it seemed like a lost cause, plus I wanted to support my kid.I want to make sure she is taking care of. Anytime mother and i talked on the phone we argued, never giving me a chance to talk to my daughter. Two years later, I remarried a wonderful woman, got our own place. A good job. And thenI was served with more papers for a name change something I Do Not Want. I just don’t know what to do. SHould I try now for visitation or has it been to long. I can’t afford a lawyer. My Credit sucks. But do I keep paying child support for a child I never get to see, not even pictures? The mother has blocked me from social sites. I send holiday cards with no reply back….I need help. I want to see mty daughter but I don’t think my bitch of an ex girlfriend won’t let me. PLus, we live 16 hours away from each other.
It is never too long to fight for your children. Getting out of state overnight visitations probably will take some time, most judges are not comfortable with putting a young child on a plane with a parent who is practically a stranger. However, if you can make a trip or two a year out there to see her, request the court to allow every other day skype or phone visitation, after awhile, you may get more rights! And yes, you must pay your child support regardless. The two are not connected in any way–even if you don’t see her at all, you must pay the support amount. My advice? file a Petition to Establish a Father and Child Relationship (commonly known as a “Complaint for Parentage” in the county courts where she lives, and ask for telephonic visitation and visitation when you are in town provided you give 14 days notice or something along those lines.
Don’t give up, and good luck!
I’m in Texas, awarded joint custody, mother primary. She is in violation on several points of orders in effect, she lives out of state and changed residence without any notice. I have evidence of her interference. I have failed to pay child support because of the hardship of having to track her down (she lives out of state and was allowed to remain). Should I petition for modification or file for contempt? Can I do both at the same time? I wish to have primary or at least obtain geographic restriction to Texas. Thank you for your time.
If there is an order in court for parentage (custody, visitation, etc) and she left the state, then she has committed a serious violation and can be held in contempt, and possibly even criminal charges if done so in violation of a court order and without your consent. File a Petition for Rule To Show Cause / Petition for Adjudication of Indirect Civil Contempt to enforce your rights and fight for your family!
I havent had contact with my ex wife for over a month she has moved never contacted me about moveing I’m supose to have my children every weekend. went by here house, the landlord said she moved out of state what can i do?.
Get an attorney immediately! There are serious time constraints on your ability to affect your rights. If there is a custody order granting you visitation in your divorce judgment your ex is not allowed to remove the children from your state and the courts can force her to bring them back or be arrested. Get help immediately, this is no time to delay another moment.
I have complained for years now that my daughter and mom are only interested in money and not my visitation. I have not seen her since 2007 for one night, she will not return my calls her or mom. I complained numerous times to AG office but was told to seek an attorney. But when I lost my job due to lay off, AG’s office was very fast in contacting and threatening me. I never missed a payment while working but after layoff I got behind. Still I would often complain about my visitation rights but to no avail. It is now 2013 and I haven’t seen her since 2007. I was not Invited to her graduation ceremonies or the graduation itself. They would not even tell me where she was going to college and to this day, still has not returned any calls to me.
What a sad story. Unfortunately, once she has turned 18 and graduated from high-school, your visitation rights end, and there is not much you can do to fight back against the wrong doings of your ex anymore. Let this be a lesson for all others out there–if you do not hire an expert attorney, you will lose your family and find yourself in debt owing back child support for a child or children you never even had the opportunity to spend time with.
I dont know what my best option is at this point ok here goes my sons dad and I are no longer on good terms because he beat the crap out of me when I was 16 and threw my son off the bed in a drunken rage and now that I am in another relationship he avoids me and his son and he has visit rights that he hasnt complied with for almost a year now can his parental visits be terminated for good?
Generally, parental rights can not be terminated. This is because public policy dictates that, when possible, it is better for children to have contact with both parents. Terminating parental rights is frowned upon by the court system, but, if you were to remarry and your ex were to sign off on the paperwork, an adoption of your new husband would be possible, thus giving up the biological father’s rights in most instances. The best way to find out is to get a free child custody attorney evaluation by filling out the form on our site. Good luck!
I just want.to speak with someone on the behalf of child rights to get to see my son I’m not in a relationship with the other parent
We fight for visitation rights and we believe that the noncustodial parent deserves to have the right to see their children on a regular basis. Numerous studies show that a child with a good relationship with both parents does better in school and succeeds in life. Getting your parental rights to visitation with your child is important. You should get started immediately! Make sure that you have your life in order–a room and/or bed for your child to sleep in for overnight visitation, and keep it clean–if an in-house evaluation is ordered and your house in not in order, it will not turn out well for you!
The first thing that is needed is for you to speak with an attorney, because this process is not simple. You will need to have the other parent served with a petition to establish parentage so that you can show that you are the father. The court may order a DNA test, so this will need to be done as well. If she fails to comply with these orders, the court can order the sheriff to pick her up and bring her to court. Once you have established parentage of your child in court, the judge will order you to begin paying child support and will also order a visitation schedule. If you do not have a father’s rights advocate on your side, getting a visitation agreement and a parenting agreement that works for you will be difficult, as the court will not write you a long parenting agreement, only an father’s rights attorney can do that for you.
I left my fiancé when she was 6 months pregnant the reason I gave her was that I wanted to hang out with friends more but truthfully that was not the only resson i wlso left her for another woman the female I left her for is 18 and I am 24 my ex fiancé at the time is 31 she already had 2 kids that are 15 and 11 but I wanted a child of my own so we planned to have a baby together we found out she was pregnant in February of 2012 the other girl and I worked together and were friends then we starterd our affair in march and when my ex fiance got to be around 6 months I left her for the other girl but my ex and I never stopped seeing each other the baby was born and she would let me take him to stay overnight an my new place with my new girlfriend and eventually the new girlfriend found out about my ex and I and I had to go live with my mother the same day I told my ex I was ready to raise our son with her and she took me back I still kept in contact with the other girl my ex fiancé told me she understood that the girl was hurt and that the girl and I still worked together and she would give it a few days and patiently wait for me to stop associating with the other girl around a week after we got back together she asked me if I would get mad if she told me it was time to quit talking to her that enough time had went by and it was time to break contact with her except for at work my response was but she’s my friend she responded so you don’t want to quit talking to her I gave her the same answer that she was my friend and I didn’t want to then I asked her if she would get mad if I needed a few days to figure out what I want i didnt tell her this part of it I don’t think that I was ready to be a full time dad and the other girl and I decided to work it out she took me asking her that pretty hard she cried and begged me not to do this to our family again I left her in the apartment my sister lives in she let us stay there while she was gone (my ex and I had a house but after I left her she could not affiord to keep it and her and the kids had to move in with her mother)she was crying her eyes out it was bad saying over and over please don’t do this i went outside the apartment to call the other girl and arrange a time and place to meet at because I was getting ready to take her back to my parents house where her car was went back inside told her to get the baby ready to go on the way I told her not to call or text for a while to give me time when I dropped them off she thanked me for our son and for the time we had together I left went and met the other girl and took her back to my sisters with me all this was on a Sunday I didn’t talk to her again except for a text i sent on wednesday telling her that the other girl and i were going to try and work things out she replied with she already knew that she knew it sunday when i dropped her off i asked her how she knew she told me she just did it was obvious on Friday i texted her that I wanted to get the baby for the weekend and she said the only way I could was if I stayed at my mothers with him that he was not allowed to come to the other girls house where I live her and that any time i wanted to see him i had to come to my mothers house her reasons for this were because I was with her, I walked out on her twice, I was irraresponsible, a liar, and that I always cancel every time I am suppose to come see him or go to dr appointments with them I explained to her that I wasent going to come down there just to see him for a few hours that if I came it was going to be to bring him home with me that it was ridiculous that the only way I could keep him overnight was to stay at my moms and I’m not doing that I told her that she can’t do that or tell me where I can see him at she says she is the mother and she can do whatever she wants that she can decide who he is allowed to be around and where he can go and that the other girl will not be a part of his life because she was the reason our son was going to grow up with a part time dad and that I committed adultery and walked out twice i told her it wasent a problem him being around the other girl before why is it a problem now she said she never eanted him around her but she couldnt tell me no because she didnt want to make me mad because she didnt want me to stop seeing her but now she dosnt care if i get mad my question is can she do that can she keep me from taking my son to our house and does the adultery matter considering we were not married can anyone tell me what the laws are on something like this is there anything I can do will it do me any good to get a lawyer or is she right does she get to decide everything
If you are being denied your visitation rights, you need to speak with an attorney and get into court as soon as possible. This is no time to wait or explore your options-the time is for action. Denial of visitation rights and visitation orders is a crime in some states and is contempt in almost every state. Get started immediately.