The Wolkowitz Law Office

Tag: preventing me from seeing my child in illinois

  • Child custody emergencies: act quickly

    If you have an Illinois child custody emergency, you may need to act quickly.

    Consider the situation encountered by one of my colleagues. He received a very distressing telephone call from a mother in child custody dispute.  She was in an absolute panic. “They’re going to take away my two girls,”  she said.

    She felt there was clear evidence that the father was abusing the children, but she couldn’t make her case in court.

    She tried her best to explain her situation between bursts of tears. The father had hired an attorney and the mother did not.  She said there was a court hearing in only a half hour, and it was about whether the mother would be jailed for disobeying a court order by keeping her children from their father. According to the mother, she had good reason to keep the girls away from their father. But now, she was in hot water – even though she wanted to protect her children.

    She needed a lawyer to help her make her case to the judge that she was justified in disobeying the court order. But by the time she realized she needed help, it was too late.

    If you are in an Illinois child custody dispute, it may very well be in your best interest to consult a Chicago divorce lawyer. While you understandably don’t want to waste money on at attorney, as the case just described shows, you could be setting yourself up for a major problem.

    If you have an Illinois child custody emergency, please contact me, Chicago, Evanston and Schaumburg family law attorney David Wolkowitz; I may be able to help.

     

  • The Crime of Visitation Interference in Illinois

    Visitation interference is common in Illinois child custody disputes. It is also a crime in Illinois pursuant to Section 10-5.5 of the Criminal Code of 1961 (720 ILCS 5/10-5.5). Aside from committing a crime, a person who interferes with visitation would most likely be in violation of a court order; for more information about getting someone to follow a court order, see my post “Court orders: Get them enforced!”

    The law states that “Every person who, in violation of the visitation, parenting time, or custody time provisions of a court order relating to child custody, detains or conceals a child with the intent to deprive another person of his or her rights to visitation, parenting time, or custody time commits the offense of unlawful visitation or parenting time interference.”

    Below are some important points about the crime of visitation interference:

    1. Getting prosecution is difficult: The crime of visitation interference is just that – a crime. And because private individuals do not prosecute crimes, the state’s attorney must bring charges. Unfortunately, the state’s attorney has no where near the capacity to pursue every parenting who has committed the crime of visitation interference.
    2. Joint custody creates difficulties with police: Although the statute does not say parents who share joint legal custody are exempt from the crime of visitation interference, many police departments believe that is that case because of their interpretation of an Illinois Supreme Court ruling. Further, police generally do not want to get involved in child custody disputes, so trying to avoid arresting someone for visitation interference is fairly consistent with their general attitudes towards child custody.
    3. Either parent can commit the crime: Traditionally, one parent is viewed as the “residential parent” and the other parent receives visitation, or “parenting time.” And although the law is most commonly though of as applying to interference with visitation specifically, it can also apply to the parent who receives visitation if he or she interferes with the other parent’s court-ordered time.
    4. A non-parent can commit the crime: Even a person who is not a parent can be convicted of the crime of visitation interference. For instance, if a friend of one parent does something to interfere with the other parent’s time with the child, that freind could be convicted of visitation interference.
    If you are having a problem with visitation interference, contact me, Chicago divorce lawyer David Wolkowitz. I may be able to help.