Denying visitation is a big issue among custodial parents. Often a parents believes they have justifiable rights for denying visitation to their ex-spouse, but the law prohibits it. Unless the court has granted a child custody modification for new visitation rights, you are not allowed to deny visitation.
The courts frown upon making decisions like these without court approval. Sometimes a parent wants to deny visitation because of a late or absent child support payment, however, it is not legal to do so. The court views issues of child support and visitation independently. It is illegal for a custodial parent to deny visitation rights to the other parent in situations where visitation has been ordered by the court, and in situations where both parents agreed on a parenting plan outside of court.
Denial of visitation rights is often thought of in straight forward terms, for instance, a custodial parent refuses to allow the child to get into the other parent’s car when the child is being picked up for visitation time. Visitation rights can be violated in other ways, however. If a parent refuses visitation because they do not like the other parent’s significant other, the child is ill, the child is visiting other relatives, the child is doing other activities, or almost any other reason, that also qualifies as denial of visitation rights. If there is any kind of emergency situation right before visitation time, the noncustodial parent must be notified so they can visit the child wherever they are.
Late or absent child support payments is never a valid reason to deny support. Even if the noncustodial parent is incarcerated, the parent still has the rights to visitation, unless the visits prove harmful to the child. If the visits are harmful to the child, the suspensions of visitation still must be approved by the courts.
In cases where the noncustodial parent is abusive to the child, the custodial parent must immediately report the abuse, and have visitation changed legally. If a noncustodial parent is found to be abusive, they will most likely be denied visitation by the courts. However, if a custodial parent reports untrue cases of abuse solely to take visitation rights from the other parent, they could risk losing custody to the noncustodial parent.
Likewise, if the custodial parent has reason to suspect that the noncustodial parent is using drugs or drinking during visitation, they can deny the visit to prevent the child from entering a dangerous situation and call law enforcement. Much like abuse cases, however, if the custodial parent was found to be making unsubstantiated allegations, the courts could change the custody arrangement in favor of the other parent because of harassment by the custodial parent.
If a parent’s visitation rights are being violated, they are encouraged to document each occurrence. the noncustodial parent can do this by filing a police report, so they have proof of the denial of visitation, and so the courts understand the parents taking the violations seriously.
A parent denying visitation rights can be held in contempt of court, fined, or jailed. If the custodial parent is found in contempt of court, custody arrangements could be modified to give the other parent more visitation rights or full custody.
