Within your child custody agreement, there may be a standard schedule that you and your ex are expected to cooperate with. Depending on what the New York family court decides, you and your ex may alternate custody over your child every other week, you may get your child on weekdays and your ex on weekends, etc. However, within this agreement, there may also be an outline for unique visitation schedules for holidays, such as federal holidays (i.e., Thanksgiving), religious holidays (i.e., Christmas), and school breaks (i.e., spring break). Now, please follow along to find out what happens when you neglect to comply with a holiday visitation schedule and how a proficient New York City child visitation attorney at Zimmet Law Group, P.C., can ensure you do not get in trouble by any means.
What happens if I neglect to comply with a holiday visitation schedule?
Understandably, your ex may be upset if you deprive them of spending a holiday with your child. In response, they may file a motion to enforce the child custody agreement with the New York family court that ordered it in the first place. With this evident violation of a court order, you may be held in contempt.
This means you may be charged fines and your ex’s legal fees. If this court finds that this violation is a pattern for you, or if they believe this one-time occurrence was intentional and deliberate, they may send you to jail for a few days, weeks, months, or even a year.
Ultimately, though, the court may intervene with your standing child support agreement. Here, they may alter the holiday visitation schedule and grant you fewer days. Or, they may transfer some of your scheduled days with your child to your ex, to compensate for the time you deprived them of.
What if I’m concerned about my child during my ex’s holiday visitation?
You may have valid reasons for not wanting your child to be under your ex’s supervision, primarily concerning their well-being and best interests. However, this still does not mean you can take it upon yourself to deny your ex’s holiday visitation rights.
Rather, you must go through the formal process of filing a post-judgment modification with the New York family court. Here, you must properly present evidence of why you are concerned for your child (i.e., your ex has recently moved to an unsafe living space, your ex has recently exhibited violence, your ex has recently been abusing drugs or alcohol, etc).
If the holiday your child is supposed to spend with your ex is coming up, and your post-judgment modification is still pending, you may petition for an emergency custody order. This may only be a viable option if you truly believe your child’s safety is at immediate risk. All of this to say, please do not wait to act.
Before you step into a New York family courtroom, you must seek one of the talented New York City matrimonial and family law attorneys to stand by your side. Please contact our office, Zimmet Law Group, P.C., as soon as you are ready.
