If the the other parent is violating a visitation order, you can take action to protect your rights to see your child. If you are having a problem with visitation interference, contact me, Chicago, Evanston and Schaumburg child custody lawyer David Wolkowitz. I may be able to help. Further, you might want to see my previous posts entitled “Court orders: Get them enforced!” and “The crime of visitation interference in Illinois.”
There are several things you should know about the violation of a visitation order:
Future violations:
If you have reason to believe the other parent is going to violate an order in the future, you can have your lawyer file a “motion to compel.” A motion to compel is essentially an order in which the court restates that the other parent should follow a previous court order. For instance, you have visitation with your child next weekend, and the other parent emails you “I’m going to take our child out of town next weekend and there is nothing you can do about it,” that would be sufficient justification for filing a motion to compel. In order words, since the other parent threatened not to follow an order, you may be able to get a court order which essentially repeats the a previous order must be followed. Why the redundancy? If the other parent violates the order even after a motion to compel, then court will probably take an extra-harsh view of the violation.
Contempt of court for violating a court order:
When judges issue court orders, they expect them to be followed. When parties don’t follow court orders, the judges get mad. And when judges get mad, the parent that has violated the order can be punished.
If any court order is violated, including a visitation order, a lawyer can attempt to have the violating party held in contempt of court. For instance, if a court order designates that on a certain holiday the child is to be with Mom, but Dad refuses to turn over the child, then the court could hold Dad in contempt.
The good news is that if someone is held in contempt of court, the court can require that person to pay the attorney’s fees the innocent parent incurred in trying to enforce the court order. In other words, the person who violated the court order can be made to pay the bill of the parent trying to enforce the order.
For a more detailed explanation of contempt of court, you may wish to read my post “Court orders: Get them enforced!.”
Visitation interference in Illinois:
Previously, I wrote a post titled “The crime of visitation interference in Illinois.” Some lawyers like to publicize the fact that interfering with visitation can be a crime in Illinois. But as I noted in my post, it is difficult to have a parent prosecuted for that crime.
Instead, a parent who has had his or her visitation interfered with can file a petition for a finding of unlawful visitation interference. At it’s most basic, visitation interference where one parent consistently and habitually deprives or obstructs the other parent’s parenting time.
What to do if an Illinois child visitation order is being violated:
The best thing to do if you are having problems with your visitation is to contact me, Illinois child visitation lawyer David Wolkowitz. I will take a look at the facts of your case, and advise you regarding my preception of the strength of your case and the likely outcome.
Since I understand that it can be difficult to schedule time with a lawyer, it is possible for us to meet near your location, and I offer evening and weekend consultations. To find out more about how I meet with clients, you might view my posts titled “Yes, I’m a Schaumburg Divorce Attorney” or “Yes, I’m an Evanston Divorce Attorney!”
The violation of visitation orders and interference with visitation is serious. If either one is happening to you, it benefits you to act quickly. The longer you wait, the harder it will be to get the results you want.
Comments
34 responses to “Parent violating a visitation order? Don’t stand for it!”
Hello. I have court in a few days. I Motioned the court to revisit the visitation schedule and how it has been disregarded by the mother of my children. I could use all the help I can get. Please give me a call sometime today when you get a chance to talk. I can provide clear and precise information thus not to waste any of your time. As you can see , its 502am and im up searching out terms like “visitation interference”. I obviously need help! Talk to you soon.
Randy
Randy,
If you don’t file the correct motion, and don’t present it property, you are unlikely to prevail. You’ll likely need to make the case that the mother, over a long period of time, has so ignored the court’s orders that a change in the visitation schedule is warranted.
Please call me if you would like a consultation.
Regards,
Chicago, Evanston and Schaumburg divorce lawyer Dave Wolkowitz
My ex keeps coming late for his visitation, and he misses probably one day a month altogether. I don’t really want him to see our kids less, but this pattern is not working out. What am I supposed to do?
You might consider filing a motion to modify visitation. Your ex routinely missing visitation is not good for you or your kids, and a judge may be sympathetic to that. You might first try to work it out with your ex, to show good faith. If that does not work, you can take action in court. As a child custody lawyer, I may be able to help.
Regards,
Chicago divorce lawyer David Wolkowitz
My ex wife told me shes moving to minnisota in septmberand we have joint custady wwhat can do? What are my rights? She moving just keep the kidd from me
Javier,
The legal term for what your wife is trying is “removal.” Removal from Illinois is a serious matter – as a Chicago divorce lawyer this is one of the most serious matters I face. There are things you can do to prevent it, and to react to it if it is done without approval from the court. I need to know more facts before giving you any advice.
You can contact me at Three-One-Two-554-5433. Or, contact me via my online contact form.
Regards,
David Wolkowitz
ok this is kind of hard to explain. i am writting in regards to a court order visitation dont being followed. ok lets see if i can explain this clear. my biological daughter’s half sister gave me custody of her son shortly after he was born and i have had him for 7 years, and now this judge down here decided to give him to her. her son didnt even know who she was there was very little bit of contacted, because of her. her son is not wanting to live with her, because he is being hit with a belt and one time when he came to visit he had brusing on his legs. and she had told me she hit him with the belt. then when he got here he had bruses, i called DCFS, but she (his mother) tried to say they wasnt there when he left. He told me himself she and her husband had hit him with the belt. DCFS told them they couldnt hit them with the belt and they are still doing it. he doesnt want to live there because he is getting mistreated. he has autism and adhd and other speical needs. they have taken him off all his medicines. and now also she is not letting me see him. what can i do? this little boy needs someones help and i dont know what to do.
Ronda,
As a Chicago divorce lawyer, I see mistreatment of children all to often.
It sounds like the child is in danger. When people believe a child is in imminent danger, it is appropriate to call DCFS and the police. However, I don’t really know enough about your situation to advise you in particular, and this would not be the proper forum to do so in any case.
You can contact me at Three-One-Two-554-5433. Or, contact me via my online contact form.
Regards,
David Wolkowitz
I have custody of my daughter. Her mother, who lives in Texas, refused to send her back to Illinois at the start of school. I have repeatly told her to return her but yet still refused…. What should i do?
Ryan,
The Illinois child custody order you have could potentially be registered in Texas, so that it would be enforceable in Texas. The Illinois court could also hold the mom in contempt, and order your daughter back to Illinois. This is a complicated matter, and you should have an attorney handle it.
My husband has 3 boys (now 10,11,and 12). There was a court order that he was allowed visitation 2 weekends a month.(My husband pays alot of child support to her also) We live in a different state then the mother. She moved to a different city in IL 8 years ago and did not notify us. We have been trying to find her for 8 years now. She is violating the court ordered visitation. I have now finally found out what city she is residing in and have her current address. However, we don’t know how to move forward being that we do live in a different state. Can you advise us?
Thank you
Ronda,
As an Illinois child custody lawyer, I know things can get difficult when one parent is bent on alienation – and it seems that in your case, the mother is quite possibly very much in the wrong. I can help you if you give me a call.
You can contact me at Three-One-Two-554-5433. Or, contact me via my online contact form.
Regards,
David Wolkowitz
Hi
I’ve took my daughter’s father to child support court in Cook County on 11/19/2012 and he had an court order for visitation starting on Dec. 2. He did not come and pick her up but he did tell me he wants to sign over his rights…but he told the judge that he would like to get her every other Sunday from 12-8pm. What should I do?! I want to file a motion which one?
I cannot give you advice via this website – the purpose of this site is to give information about the law.
You ask me what you should do, but as I don’t know what you goal is, I cannot tell you what to do – even if I could give you advice via this website.
However, I will say that if the father thinks that he can “sign over” his rights as a way to get out of paying child support, than he is an idiot. What type of sense would it make for the government to allow people to get out of paying support by allowing them to sign over rights? The purpose of child support is to have kids taken care of. If people could get out of paying support simply by singing over their rights, many worthless parents would choose to do so.
If you would like a child support and visitation consultation, you’d have to retain me as your attorney.
Contact me at Three-One-Two-554-5433. Or, contact me via my online contact form.
Hi,
I have a friend who is being bullied by her husband. They have 2 kids together he has two DUI and is driving on a suspended license. He constinley harasses her with e-mails calling her awful names and putting her down, saying she’s a horrible mother. She has full custody and he is supposed to see them every other weekend and on Tues. well, he never gets them on Tuesday he refuses and last year she was supposed to have them for Christmas eve and he blew her off. Now he is demanding he gets them again this year. She has a brother who is very ill and won’t be here next year and he doesn’t care. What should she do he constinley is harassing her.he has also harassed me and my family as well. She very upset and has no idea where to turn.
If a person wants a change to a custody or visitation order, I file a Motion to Modify Custody or Visitation.
If one is being harassed by someone with whom they have a domestic relationship, one can potentially get an order of protection. If not in a domestic relationship, there are other remedies available.
If a person granted visitation does not exercise visitation, then the visitation schedule can be modified.
I cannot offer your friend advice via this forum. However, she can retain me to represent her.
Contact me at Three-One-Two-554-5433. Or, contact me via my online contact form.
this is kinda might be a little hard to explain, what can i do if the mother of my child keep trying to delaying my visitation order and keep call the police and dcfs on my after they keep saying saying that there unfounded. I have police reports and dcfs papers that support everything im saying. but she claim to the police i rape my daughter and there was no evidence trying to get a OP against me after and it was denied but after court she call dcfs on and the said its unfounded. there was police she keep delaying my visitation and i have get the police to involve almost every weekend because she don’t show up on time and isn’t were she suppose to be. Can I do
She could just leave without filing anything, but from what you say, it seems she doesn’t truly want to. If he is abusive, an order of protection is possible.
Contact me at Three-One-Two-554-5433. Or, contact me via my online contact form.
Hello,
I have custody of our daughter and we utilize the standard visitation schedule of every other weekend plus one weekday evening every week. Our divorce was finalized in July 2012, and from July through November my ex husband exercised a total of 6 weekday visits. I threatened to take him to court to eliminate his weekday visits since it became such a hassle to always plan for him to have her and then he would cancel. He has since been exercising his weekday evenings (so, December, January, and the first week of February).
However, last week he became angry and demanded that he doesn’t see our daughter enough. I reminded him that up until recently, he rarely exercised his midweek visitation. He is now threatening to take me to court to ask for either an additional weekday evening or to make the weekday an overnight visit.
My problem with it is that our daughter is only 3. We split when she was 16 months old, and between him canceling so much visitation and the fact that when we were together, he didn’t get home from work until after she was in bed, she is not very close to him. Every time I drop her off she asks me to take her home and tries to buckle herself back up in the car after I’ve unbuckled her. The other concern I have is that every time I get ehr back from him, there is a couple days of adjustment for her, which her counselor said is typical. If he really sees her more, I’m afraid that whenever I get her back, we will spend a couple days adjusting and then I will just have to take her back to him as soon as she has transitioned.
My question is this: can he be granted more visitation just because he feels he doesn’t get enough? I feel that he is only thinking about himself, and the fact that he is currently unemployed he has now been provided more time he could be seeing her. I don’t feel he is considering what is best for her. When I told him that I had to *make* her go to his house, his sarcastic response was, “Gee, thanks. That makes me feel good.” I told him that only proved to me that he is only concerned about himself in this and needs to learn that this is about our daughter and not him. Would the court grant him more visitation just based on the fact that he feels entitled to it?
I do not think a court would grant your husband more visitation just based on the fact that he feels entitled to it. Court’s don’t do things just because people want them to. That being said, perhaps he will get more visitation.
If you would like a help with your child visitation issue, you’d have to retain me as your attorney.
Contact me at Three-One-Two-554-5433. Or, contact me via my online contact form.
My husband recently went back to court to have his viistation ordered changed. He is supposed to have his kids Tuesdays and Thursdays after school until he goes to work, he works nights. Well the mother drops them off anytime she wants and then tells us she’s out of town and she will be home on Thursday so we basically have them for the majority of the week. Is there anything we can do to make her abide by the court order.
In Illinois, if one wants a court order enforced, one can file a petition for rule – it’s what is done to have someone found in contempt.
I cannot offer your husband or you advice via this forum. However, he can retain me to represent him.
Contact me at Three-One-Two-554-5433. Or, contact me via my online contact form.
I had a court order placed 5 years ago when I was living in Missouri. I now live in Illinois. The father of my nine year old child is trying to come back in her life and has not had anything to do with her in 8 years. He has been in and out of prison during this time from cooking Meth. In August 2012 he finally got a job and the Missouri child support agency started sending him child support papers. He has now made 3 payments. Since they have started sending him papers he has been pushing for his supervised rights. My daughter has seen him maybe three times since August. She says she does not want to see him. She can’t explain to me why. I have tried to convince her to see him and she still does not want to see him. He now keeps calling the police on me. What can I do? I am in desperate need of advice.
I read your article and realized I may have a bit to add to this. Last year, the Steve Watkins Memorial Act was signed into law and this law substantially increases the penalties available of visitation interference. It is now possible to remove offender’s drivers license, impose $500 day fines, and even assign jail time for egregious offenders. Visitation interference is finally a serious issue and one that people should take seriously. (750 ILCS 5/607.1)
I have a 2 year old son and im going to court to set up visitation and have some other thing taken care of. What cost should i expect to see when just going to court to file?
Hello. i have a two year old son who i share visitation with. My son’s father and I are not together and we each live in different states. I live in Indiana and he lives in Illinois. About a month ago, we came to an agreement with a visitation order under the judge’s order. Just a few weeks into the agreement, he violated it. I have our son during the week and he has our son on the weekends and every other Monday. I didn’t get our son back until Wednesday evening. I had contact with my son’s father via text because he wouldn’t answer my calls. All he kept telling me was he just wanted to spend more time with our son. He’s never brings our son back to me at a reasonable time. He usually calls really late at night (10:00 or later) purposely because he knows I won’t drive that far that late at night with our son. I already filed an emergency motion which hasn’t been addressed yet by the courts. Its the same routine each week where he has me waiting on him just to get our son back. Despite all of the wrong he is doing to me, I still abide by the visitation order. But now, I’m really fed up and am tired of waiting on the courts to respond to my motion. Are there any other options I have like calling the police? I’m tired of him making me wait around on him. He constantly gives me the runaround where I’m waiting for hours trying to get our son back. I don’t want to keep him from seeing our son. I just thought us making the agreement on visitation was wiping the slate clean. Obviously not. Please help!
So I received a text today from my asking to see our son today…He hasn’t taken our son for his court order times (every weekend) since the the end of July. Yes he has taken or seen our son here and there but less the 10 days in the past 2 months and if he takes our son its for the max 5 hours or when he sees him its for less then 20 mins. He only comes around when it is convenient to him! The times he has taken our son is to meet some females he was talking to or to make himself look good to his family. He has paid $0 in child support (he was court ordered to pay $98 since Feb.) and hasn’t paid for diapers in over 5 months. Do I have to let him see our son today (Monday)? Keep in mind I have our son Sunday night to Saturday morning (my court order times). Can I get full custody of our son since he hasn’t done anything he is suppose to? When he does come see our son and leave our son (who just turned 2) throws a fit and literally get sick over him leaving some days he doesnt want anything to do with his father.
Elleon,
You should follow court orders. If you want the orders changed, you need to follow a motion. You asked me if you can get full custody, and other things. The answer is “maybe.”. I know basically nothing about your case or your judge, so I cannot make a prediction of the outcome. If you want to fix the situation, you should hire a lawyer.
Regards,
David Wolkowitz
Three-One-Two-554-5433
Contact Attorney Wolkowitz online
Hi, my son and I reside in Indiana and have lived here in Indiana since 8/19/12 (over a year) my sons father has motioned for an emergency petition for child visitation in Illinois because that’s where he lives. He already has a court date in Illinois for his attempting to get full custody so I don’t understand his emergency motion. But my main question right now is what can I do? can he legally file and make me go to court in Illinois even though our son and I have been living in Indiana for over a year? Please I need legal advice quick as the emergency court date is set for the 18th which is in 3 days. I was just notified via mail today which is unfair and it shows that he filed on the 9th but didn’t mail it til the 11th and I just recvd the paperwork this evening. I dealt with 6 years of mental, emotional, and verbal abuse from my sons father and I know this is his way of still trying to get to me and trying to prove that he has the upper hand. What can I do?
If your son has lived with you in Indiana for one year, it seems that Indiana should have jurisdiction over the custody case, not Illinois. I cannot possibly explain to you what to do via this web site, nor can I know what you should do since I have not reviewed what he filed or any previous orders. Call me if you would like me to represent you in Illinois.
Question is related to orders. In 2007 my husband had an order from IDPH which stated he was responsible for 100% of medical but in 2009 he took her back to court. In that order it states each parent is responsible for 50%. Which order is in effect because she says she is not paying because the first order says she didn’t have to pay. His daughter is on my insurance and I’m getting the collection calls because she is not paying her part while we pay our half. I have never met his daughter and we live in the same small town. She only enforces what part she wants to enforce and we are tired but don’t want to spend another $30,000.00 to take her back to court. I just need to know which order is in effect.
Rebecca,
When two orders conflict, the most recent order controls. You should hire a lawyer to get the court to make your husband’s ex pay what she owes.
Regards,
David Wolkowitz
312-554-5433
Contact Attorney Wolkowitz online
my daughters father an I just went to court a few months ago, an I just found out he is being evicted from his one bedroom apartment and he I’d moving in with his girlfriend of two weeks. He doesn’t want to tell me where he’s staying at and doesn’t let me meet his girl friend. I am not ok with letting my daughter go stay with him and a total stranger. All he does is lie to me about the whole situation and his family tells me everything and he gets mad. I went to his apartment I thought he was still living in with the police to retrieve my belongings a never took with me and his brother and girl friend are staying there but did not open the door for the police because they were in there smoking weed the police smelled it is thee any way I can request supervised visitions