Enforcing Your Right to Child Visitation

If you have not been granted full custody of your children, the courts have likely given you a specific visitation arrangement that will enable you to see them. There are a variety of types of visitation, including weekend visitation, supervised visitation and more. If anyone attempts to interfere with your rights of visitation, there are steps you can take to assert those rights. 

The most common circumstances in which you need to enforce your rights are when the custodial parent refuses to let you have your court-mandated visitation time with your children. Be sure to keep a written record of every circumstance in which the custodial parent denies you your visitation, so you can have evidence of a pattern of interference. Once you have established this pattern, you have several options: 

  • Try to self-mediate. See if you can work out the issues with the custodial parent through a simple discussion. Maybe you just need to tweak the schedules, or set certain ground rules. You may also work it out through professional mediation or counseling.
  • File a motion in the court system. You can file a motion in court to enforce your visitation rights. The court will then clarify all the details of the visitation plan, and could potentially increase your rights and decrease spousal support if you can prove a pattern of interference. In rare cases, the courts may even change who has primary custody.
  • Keep the child on grounds of endangerment. If you feel that your child would be placed in danger by returning home after the visit, you can violate the terms of your visitation agreement so long as you are able to defend this violation in court. 

If you become frustrated by the custodial parent’s lack of cooperation in your visitation schedule, never take it out on them by stopping support payments. That can only harm your position in the long run. 

For further guidance and advice on enforcing your rights to visitation in New York, consult a dedicated Queens child custody attorney with Bryan L. Salamone & Associates.

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