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What Do You Do If The Other Parent Denies Or Restricts Your Visitation With Your Children

On Behalf of | Aug 2, 2019 | Uncategorized |

Your spouse, former spouse or the other is denying or restricting your custody time with the children, what do you do?

Do you have a court order that addresses custody? If you have court order that sets forth your custody time, review the Order and see if you are being denied the parenting time in that Order. If so, you can go to court and enforce your rights to time with the kids as set forth in the Order. You can file a motion to enforce the Order and ask the court to order the other parent to give you the time per the Order. You can also file a motion to hold the other parent in contempt of court (called a rule to show cause) for violating the court order. Violations of court orders on parenting time are taken very seriously by courts. You can ask the court to hold the other party in contempt of court, issue sanctions, increase your parenting time, get make up time for the time you missed, have the other parent pay your legal fees, pay a fine, and serve jail time. 

Do you have a custody agreement that defines your custodial time? If so, you can go to court and have the agreement enforced by court order. The court will enter an order compelling the other parent to transfer the children to you for your custody time per your agreement. By the way, if you have a custody agreement, you should have it incorporated into a court order. If the agreement is incorporated and made part of a court order, if you are denied time, you can file a contempt motion and ask to impose the penalties for violation of a court order.

You can go to the police to try to have a custody order enforced.

If you do not have a custody order or custody agreement, then you may have to file for custody and visitation in court.

When the other parent denies you time, you need to act immediately. Send him or her an email and text message about the denial of the visitation. The message you send will be used in court so make sure it is written properly. Do not express any anger or insults. Keep the tone of your communications polite. Ask for the children to be transferred to you and give a time you will pick them up. Ask why he or she did not transfer the children on time and demand that the children be transferred to you. Ask for make-up time for any missed visitation. Try your best to work this out. If you do not get the children, you need to call a lawyer. You do not want to be passive or acquiesce to the new status quo of not having visitation or having limited or restricted time with your kids.

Keep copies of all correspondence between you and the other party. Keep a daily diary of all communications and dates when you were denied the time or contact with the kids. You will need this documentation if you have to go to court.

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