When you are involved in a custody hearing, you may have concerns about the other party. For instance, you may believe that the other party doesn’t have the best interest for your child or children. However, when you go into a court hearing all sides are considered. This means that the judge very well could give time to your former significant other, which also means that you will have to abide by the rules of the court order. But what happens if you believe that the child is being subjected to a dangerous environment? What if you believe your court order needs some changing? You may have options.
The state of California abides by the “best interest of the children” standard, which involves protecting children to the best of their ability. If there are issues of protection and safety in the custody matter, then that will be brought to light. A judge may order that a child only have contact with a specific parent when a neutral third party is present during visitation. This is what is known as supervised visitation. This type of visitation is ordered for many reasons, including the following:
- Giving the visiting parent a chance to address specific issues
- Reintroducing the parent and child after a long absence
- Introducing a parent and child when there has been no prior relationship
- A history or allegations of domestic violence, child abuse, or neglect
- Substance abuse problems
- Parenting concerns or mental illness
- Parental threat of abduction
What Forms May Supervised Visitation Take?
There are many options when supervised visitation is something that you want for your court order. You do not have to think that you will automatically be the person who stands in and supervises the visits, making the situation awkward and uncomfortable. Here are some options you have:
- You can grant supervised visits in the presence of a neutral third party. This would include people who are friends of the family, a grandparent or other family member, neighbors, or a childcare provider.
- A neutral location could be chosen so that the visit is monitored by professionals. Professional staff and volunteers have been trained to supervise visits.
- A mental health professional could help you. Therapists or other mental health professionals who provide visitation are trained especially for these situations. These visits are usually one-on-one and can be a bit more expensive.
- Of course, if worst comes to worst (or you decide that you can work things out with the other parent enough to decide on this) you could have the supervised visit with the former spouse. Parents who choose to provide supervision together must work extremely hard to avoid conflict. This is due to the fact that both infants and young children react negatively to parental conflict.
Courts will sometimes take away reasonable visitation based on the circumstances. For instance, the court may find that visitation only hurts the child’s physical health or even significantly impairs the child’s emotional development. They may also find that overnight visits may not be in the best interest for very young children. When this occurs, the child may start seeing the other parent for a couple of hours at a time, but this may increase as time goes on. The problem is that you cannot just stop visitation on your own if there is a court order. You will have to get judge’s approval under the circumstances so that you are not in contempt for just choosing to keep the child away. Here are some more things that may help your case:
- Witnesses have seen the other parent or those included in the other parent’s household abuse the child.
- The other parent has used illegal drugs or abused alcohol in the presence of the child.
- Injuries or sexual abuse to the child was caused by the other parent or somebody else in their household.
- Criminal convictions are pending or exist for the other parent
Are there issues stemming from visitation matters in your household? Do you wish to completely put an end to visitation under good reasons and determining situations? If this is the case, you may want to seek help from an attorney who will get to understand your case and stand by your side in this difficult and dire time. Call The Law Office of Soheila Azizi & Associates today to find out more about what options you have.
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