How are Custody and Visitation issues decided?
No area of family law brings to the courtroom the tension, anxiety, hostility, volatility and raw emotion as child custody and visitation litigation. Rare is the divorce, dissolution, or custody determination in which the parties have been able to set aside personal differences to reach the goal of what is best for the children involved. Most parents pay lip service to this ideal, but often cannot reach it in actuality.
Most often a judge will take great pains to get parents themselves to come to a mutually acceptable custody agreement if that is possible. A decision made by a stranger is rarely completely acceptable to all if the attempt has not been made in earnest. The family court systems of the states usually have several layers of counseling, mediation and conciliation to attempt to bring warring parents together for the purpose of resolving the issue of what is in the best interests of their children.
What about visitation?
Generally a court will grant reasonable visitation rights to a parent unless it is shown that the visitation will be detrimental to the best interests of the child. A non-parent can also be granted visitation if they have an interest in the welfare of the child. This group is generally divided into the area of grandparents, stepparents and other non-parents. It should be noted that this is discretionary with the court. The court may also approve visitation plans and restrictions considering factors relevant to the best interests of the child.
How can a parent remedy the frustration of visitation rights?
A variety of remedies are available to provide relief to the non-custodial parent who has had visitation rights frustrated. The non-custodial parent can commence an action to show cause concerning contempt for violating the court’s order pertinent to visitation. This is not a favored alternative. The court also has power to modify support, yet this works a hardship on the welfare of the child and is similarly not favored. Another alternative is to ask the court to require the custodial parent to post a monetary bond, which would be forfeited if the custodial parent frustrates visitation. Usually a history of frustration of visitation is the threshold which much be shown to the court, not a sole incident.
