One common complaint from parents about child custody in Charles County, MD., is visitation abuse by the co-parent. This abuse can be from either parent, although it may seem more typical of the parent with visitation rights. Some common examples include:

• Constant delays for pick-ups and late drop-offs
• Yelling and verbal abuse of one parent by another during pick-ups and drop-offs
• Excessive interruptions with parenting time, such as lots of texts and calls
• Constant requests for changes
• Schedule changes made/requested with no warning
• Refusal to follow the schedule — particularly with holidays and special occasions
• And more

Many parents will “go along” with this sort of abusive behavior for many reasons, like making efforts to cooperate, it is easier to “go along,” wanting to avoid fighting with your ex-spouse, etc. However, at some point, the situation will become untenable. Sometimes, “going along” just makes the abuse worse. In this article, the Charles County, Maryland, Custody and Family Law Lawyers here at the Law Office of Robert Castro offer some thoughts on practical steps to deal with visitation abuse. If you have more questions, call us at (301) 870-1200 or use our contact page.

Some Practical Steps to Deal with Visitation Abuse

First, there are two key points to understand. First, the ultimate solution to these problems is to ask the Maryland divorce court judge to intervene. Specifically, you may end up asking the judge to modify the visitation schedule and impose new schedules and rules governing visitations. If you are the custodial parent, you may even want to go so far as to ask for visitation to be terminated. If you are a parent with visitation rights, you may want to go so far as to ask for full custody. So, some extreme remedies can be requested for both parents.

Second, while the judge has the ultimate authority, judges are not interested in constant requests and complaints from parents about what, objectively, might be “small issues.” So, if you are prepared to ask the judge to intervene, be sure the issues are “big” issues or that you can demonstrate a long pattern of “small issues” that amount to serious visitation abuse. With these ideas as background, here are some practical tips.

• Talk to your co-parent politely — it may be painful to talk to your ex-spouse, but this needs to be done; you need to be able to tell the judge that you tried and that you tried over and over again
• Suggest mediation about the abuse — another way of showing the judge that you tried; a mutually trusted friend/family member could be a good mediator
• Get some paper or a diary and begin writing down the violations and abuse — put down everything, even if the lateness was only a few minutes; this is your evidence that will convince the judge that a modification of the custody Order is needed
• If photos or video will depict the violations, take photos and video — more evidence
• Kept copies of emails, letters, text messages, etc. — more evidence
• Write down how the visitation abuse impacted your life/schedule, even in small ways — this shows the judge that the abuse is causing material consequences
• Prepare to gather your evidence over several weeks (8 to 12 unless the abuse becomes truly unacceptable)
• Talk to your co-parent again
• File your papers with the court identifying exactly what changes you want the court to impose

Contact Waldorf, Maryland Family Law and Child Custody Lawyer Robert Castro Today

This article has been provided by the Law Office of Robert Castro. For more information or questions, contact our office to speak to an experienced Maryland family law and divorce lawyer at (301) 870-1200. We are Waldorf, MD, Family Law lawyers. Our address is 2670 Crain Highway, Waldorf, MD, 20601.