Visitation
There are three things that you can do with visitation:
-
enforce visitation
-
modify visitation (agreed)
-
modify visitation (not agreed)
Enforcing your parenting time with your child. If for some reason you are having trouble with the other parent respecting the previous orders of the court regarding your visitation with your child, there are a couple of things you can do about it.
First, you can file a Motion to Enforce parenting time. This would have the effect of bringing the other party back into court and making them "explain" their noncompliance. Unfortunately, a Motion to Enforce lacks real teeth - it just gives the Judge the opportunity to make the same order again. Still, there can be times when it is a good idea to file a Motion to Enforce.
Second, you can file a Citation in Contempt. A citation in contempt is an accusation that the other party is not following the orders of the Court and therefore is in contempt. If the Judge agrees and finds a party in contempt, the judge has a number of options up to and including jailing the offending party, in order to motivate them to follow the Court's orders.
If you are having sufficient problems with the other parent and parenting time, please contact our office and set an appointment to discuss your problem.
Modify Parenting Time - Agreed If both you and the other parent AGREE that visitation should be changed and how it should be changed, you can contact my office. I can draw up an Agreed Order so that the order of the Court regarding visitation can be changed in the most inexpensive way possible..
Modifying Visitation When the Parties Do Not Agree If you want to change the visitation of your child with either you or the other spouse, the general process is the following:
-
Call my office to make an appointment.
-
I will prepare a Motion to Modify Parenting Time.
-
The Motion is served on the other party.
-
A court date is set to hear the Motion to Modify Parenting Time.
-
The Judge makes a decision about whether to modify parenting time and, if so, in what way.
If you need to change the visitation, particularly if it is an emergency, call my office to schedule an appointment. If it is an emergency, please be sure to mention that.