One of your bad habits may be that you have poor time management skills, which translates into your consistently being late to pick up or drop off your child per your visitation schedule. Or, when it is finally your chance to spend quality time with your child, you may get controlled by feelings of jealousy and be unwilling to give their other parent updates, or let your child get in contact with them, throughout your visitation period. Well, you must understand that these excuses may not go over well with the New York State Family Court. With that being said, please read on to discover the legal consequences associated with violating a visitation order and how a seasoned New York City child visitation attorney at Zimmet Law Group, P.C., can help you avoid getting into deep trouble like this.
What are the legal consequences of violating a visitation order?
You may view being a little late for visits, missing a few visits, taking your child to unapproved locations and activities, etc., as harmless actions, but the New York State Family Court may not see it the same way. Rather, as a result, you may be held in contempt of court and be subject to serious legal consequences. This is because, at the end of the day, your visitation schedule is a court order, and your actions may have been in direct violation of it.
For one, your already-limited visitation time with your child may be further reduced. This may be the court’s way of compensating your child’s other parent for the time they lost due to your violation(s). What’s worse, though, if the court believes your actions were an immediate threat to your child’s well-being. This may be if you drove them to an unapproved location, refused for them to communicate with their other parent, failed to give the court-approved supervisor the right time and date of the visit, etc.
Under these circumstances, the court may order you to pay monetary fines or even serve a jail sentence. This may be the court’s way of punishing you for your defiance of their authority, while also deterring you from violating your court-ordered visitation arrangement in the future. Also, these monetary fines may be paid directly to your child’s other parent, to compensate them for their lost work or childcare expenses with unattended visits, for example. Or, to cover their legal fees for having to file a motion for contempt of court.
What can I do to avoid getting into trouble with a visitation order?
You may have every intention of complying with your visitation order, but extenuating circumstances may be getting in the way. For instance, you may have gotten a new work schedule that makes you constantly late to your scheduled visits. In a case like this, before your child’s other parent can take legal action against you, you should petition for a post-judgment modification with the New York State Family Court.
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 one of the competent New York City matrimonial and family law attorneys from Zimmet Law Group, P.C., to make this legal process overall less burdensome for you. We will be happy to help and give you much-needed relief.
