Even though the New Jersey family court typically goes for a joint custody arrangement, it may find that in your case, having one parent with sole custody rights and another parent with visitation rights is in your child’s best interest. You may take a visitation schedule less seriously than a custody schedule, but the court does not view it the same. That is, you and your child’s other parent must closely abide by the court’s order or else you risk facing serious legal consequences. With that being said, please continue reading to learn how visitation is enforced by the court when a parent refuses to comply and how an experienced Bergen County child custody attorney at McNerney & McAuliffe can help you initiate court intervention when deemed necessary.
What are examples of a parent refusing to comply with a visitation order?
You may assume that the custodial parent typically gives the noncustodial parent a hide time with their scheduled visitation sessions. However, the noncompliance can go both ways. Below are the most common examples that the New Jersey family court has to deal with:
- A failure to comply by the custodial parent:
- They may schedule their child’s appointments, activities, etc., during the noncustodial parent’s visitation period.
- They may instill fear and resentment in their child toward the noncustodial parent and make them unwilling to attend visits.
- They may move their child to a different state without consent, making it difficult for the noncustodial parent to commute for scheduled visits.
- A failure to comply by the noncustodial parent:
- They may fail to return their child at the agreed-upon location and time after their visitation period.
- They may prevent their child from communicating with the custodial parent during their visitation period.
- They may fail to coordinate an approved adult supervisor to oversee the visitation period, per the court’s orders.
What mechanisms does the court use to enforce a visitation order?
Say you repeatedly refuse to comply with your visitation order. Well then, your child’s other parent may be driven to file a formal petition or motion for contempt of court with the New Jersey family court. From here, the court may choose from varying mechanisms to rectify the situation at hand. Examples are as follows:
- The court may add make-up dates in the parenting time schedule for the parent deprived of time with their child.
- The court may modify an existing custody arrangement to give more rights to the parent deprived of time with their child.
- The court may order the noncompliant parent to pay monetary fines or serve jail time if the child’s well-being was threatened.
- The court may order both parents to undergo mediation proceedings to resolve visitation issues before taking more drastic measures.
We understand that you may not want to deal with any of this right now, but it must be addressed for your and your child’s sakes. So please allow a skilled Bergen County family law attorney from McNerney & McAuliffe to make this legal process overall less burdensome for you. We will be happy to help and give you much-needed relief.