Custodial Parent Cut Visitation

My question involves a child custody case from the State of: KY

Okay, So, My husband's Visitation was not set through the courts. However he and the child's mother and step father both signed an agreement with witnesses who also signed it. Stating that he gets his child every other weekend.

Which, he has been. No where on the agreement does it state a specific time to when the child has to be dropped off. Just states every other weekend.

He was according to the mother 15 minutes late getting the child back home this Sunday. When he walked in with his child the mother flipped out, took 4-6 nerve pills which she has been prescribed for Anxiety and PTSD (from a car accident I believe) and started yelling about how she couldn't handle this anymore and she was putting her foot down ect.

This evening rolls around and the Mother's Mother calls him, she explains that the child is having behavioral problems after returning home from his house each weekend (Normal transitional behavior where the two households have different rules etc.). Stating that the Child's mother had been to see a psychiatrist and the psychiatrist had stated that it was in the best interest of the Mother's mental health that until further notice the child not have visitation with the father so they have cut his visitation with his child and are sending the child to a Psychiatrist for the "Behavioral Problems"

this Saturday past the child expressed fears that her mother was going to attempt to take her away from her father and expressed that she did not wish for this to happen.As well as bringing up some other events that had been happening at home that sound a lot like the Custodial Parent and the Step-Father are attempting to Alienate the child from her father. Bad mouthing the father, threatening the child with things such as "If you tell them anything we say bad about them then you won't see them again until you are 18." Things of that nature.


Now, while the document for visitations was not notarized, according to a law student friend, it is still a legally binding contract because both parties signed and it was witnessed.

Can the father enforce the visitation agreement and how would he be able to do that if so?

It's not enforceable.

He needs to go to court to get an enforceable visitation order, because at the moment Mom can legally withhold the child no matter what agreement they've reached out of court.

If your law student friend believes that a contract needs to be notarized in order to be legally binding, he's not correct. If your law student friend believes that an informally reached custody agreement, even if reduced to writing, cannot be abrogated by one of the parties, he's incorrect -- although to the extent that it helps document the parties' past practices, upon hearing the case the court may be inclined to continue the established arrangement going forward.

If you want a legally binding custody order, you have to get one from a court. A court is not going to enforce the informal agreement. If the parties stipulate to the terms of the agreement being reduced to an order of the court, and the court finds it to be in the children's best interest, then the parties can get a consent order to the same effect -- and that is something the court will enforce. If the parties no longer agree as to the visitation schedule, and no negotiated settlement is reached, then it would be necessary to litigate the issue before the court.

Dad would be wise to get the court order process started ASAP...IF Mom gets a new status quo and a pile of experts on her side of equation that the new limited visits are in childs best interests ...it might hurt dads view of what is in childs best interests.

Withholding visitations to benefit Moms mental health is a far cry from what is best for the child ....

But I think it very important that Dad use counsel to advance his point of view