Enforcing Child Visitation During And After Divorce

Posted on: 8 September 2018

Just because you have a visitation schedule it doesn't mean that the other parent will honor it; they may have their own reasons for not honoring the visitation schedule. if you find yourself in the situation where the visitation schedule is not being followed, you can take the following measures to remedy the situation:

Talk To Them

In some cases, you may be able to overcome the challenge simply by talking to the other parent. give the parent a friendly reminder about the visitation agreement and why it is important for both of you to have quality parenting time with the child. This option is particularly viable if you are on speaking terms with the other parent. In some cases, it might even be a good idea to inform them about the potential consequences of denying visitation rights.

Get Your Attorney to Send Them a Letter

You can also give the other parent a more authoritative reminder by having your attorney send them a reminder to adhere to the visitation rights. Your attorney's letter will not be as friendly as your personal reminder; it will be an official legal document specifying a further action in case the letter doesn't trigger the desired result. Some people may ignore your friendly reminder but not your lawyer's letter and your lawyer is likely to charge only a small fee for the service.

Seek Help from Law Enforcement

If the above tips don't help, then you should consider involving the local authorities on the issue. The only problem is that the police officers are, in many cases, reluctant to get involved in what they term "family affairs." This is particularly true of the police officers don't see anything that presents an immediate danger to the child. Therefore, they may or may not help you enforce the visitation order merely based on your ward.

Go Back To Court

In some cases, you may have no option but to seek the court's help. Note that visitation agreements signed by the court are court orders, and anyone violating them may be held in contempt of the court. That may earn the other parent a monetary fine or a short jail sentence, among other consequences. Alternatively, you may seek the court's help to modify the visitation schedule. This is particularly helpful if you believe that the other parent is trying to honor the visitation orders, but they are unable to do so due to their unique circumstances (such as employment).

Contact a firm, like Kelm & Reuter, P.A., for more help.

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