Father Refusing Visitation and Transportation

**jetsundolma** · 05-18-2010, 03:06 PM

My question involves a child custody case from the State of:
New York.

My daughters father has court ordered visitation. He is to pick her up Saturday at 6 pm until Sunday at 8 pm. He has never followed this and usually picks her up Sunday at 11 am. I was wondering if, because he doesn't pick her up at 6pm on Saturday if I am legally able to deny access Sunday since his scheduled pick up time is Saturday? It is also court ordered that he is responsible for all transportation regarding visitation. He is refusing to bring her home. Can he be arrested for contempt of a court order?

**Dogmatique** · 05-18-2010, 03:32 PM

He will not be arrested, period - so let's get that one out of the way from the start.

Unless your court orders specifically says that he forfeits the entire weekend if he doesn't turn up on Saturday, you cannot withhold visitation.

You can, however, go back to court and modify the order based upon him only coming to get her on Sunday.

How often is this happening?

**jetsundolma** · 05-18-2010, 06:25 PM

He has never followed the order. This has happened every week since it was established. It does state that he is to give me 24 hours notice if is not going to pick her up, but he doesn't do that either. Will a judge or law guardian look at text messages? I have too many to count to show he unfortunately doesn't care to see our daughter.

**Dogmatique** · 05-18-2010, 07:04 PM

When was the order established?

**jetsundolma** · 05-20-2010, 04:22 PM

The order was modified in December. The original order was based on work schedules which he abused and used to his advantage as a reason not to pick her up. Is it possible to have visitation set at my discretion? I want him to have a relationship with his daughter, unfortunately he lacks the brains to realize he should. I won't refuse visitation but, I just want it so if he asks to see her I will let him as long as we don't have any engagements. I want to get rid of set times and days since he doesn't follow them anyway. Also, we have joint custody yet, he has nothing to do with her daily life, should I go for full custody or doesn't really matter? I am going to court in the morning to try and have it modified once again, I just don't want to waste my time, if there's no possibility of the visitation modified to my wants.

**Dogmatique** · 05-20-2010, 04:43 PM

It's unlikely that at this point that you'll get the modification - it's far too soon after the order was made in December.

He DOES see his daughter, and regularly - this is evidence that he wants to be involved in his daughter's life.

You might get lucky though - I suppose all you can do at this point is wait and see until tomorrow!