What can you do if someone is interfering with your parental rights?

The Supreme Court of Virginia recognized a cause of action for intentionally interfering with the parental rights set forth in Section 1-240.1 in the case of Wyatt v. McDermott, 725 S.E.2d 555 (Va. 2012). The Court expressed the elements of the tort as follows: (1) the complaining parent has a right to establish or maintain a parental or custodial relationship with his or her minor child; (2) a party outside the relationship between the complaining parent and his or her child intentionally interfered with the complaining parent’s parental or custodial relationship by removing or detaining the child from returning to the parent, without that parent’s consent, or by otherwise preventing the complaining parent from exercising his or her parental or custodial rights; (3) the outside party’s intentional interference caused harm to the complaining parent’s parental or custodial relationship with his or her child; and, (4) damages resulted from such interference.