Supervised Parenting Time Should Always Have a Specific Goal and Timeline

If your ex-spouse threatens to take your children away from you, usually all it takes to call your ex’s bluff is to go back to court.  The courts are not in the business of determining which parent wins the children and which parent loses them; instead, they instruct parents to negotiate during mediation to find a timesharing schedule that is acceptable to both of them.  When the parents cannot do this, the courts set the parenting plan based on what they believe is in the best interests of the children, which involves the children spending ample time with both parents.  If your ex thinks it is unsafe for your children to be alone with you, the burden of proof is on your ex.  If this happens, the worst-case scenario is that the court will order you to exercise supervised parenting time, where another adult is present when you are with your children.  If there were any danger of the court suspending your parenting time entirely, you would know it because you would be finding it out from inside a jail cell.  For help maintaining your unsupervised parenting time or getting it back after the court ordered supervised parenting time only, contact a Boca Raton child custody lawyer.

The Courts Should Not Leave the Resumption of Unsupervised Parenting Time to Chance

When the courts order supervised parenting time, it is not like it looks in the movies.  Usually, the children still spend time with you in your home, but another adult must be present at all times.  For example, the court might award you parenting time from Friday evenings until Sunday evenings, but your mother must be present the entire time; this is easy if you live with your mother.  Most supervised parenting time orders arise from incidents where the children were in acute danger, such as if the police responded to a domestic violence call when the children were present or if one parent drove drunk while the children were in the car.  No matter the reason, the court must review its decision to keep the parenting time supervised or to revert to unsupervised parenting time every six months.

If the court orders supervised parenting time indefinitely, which it should not, you should appeal the decision.  In one instance, the court ordered supervised parenting time indefinitely for a divorced mother after her ex-husband alleged that she coached their son to claim falsely that he had been abused.  The court decision contained no other details about the nature or context of the allegations.  It left the decision up to the parents and their healthcare providers when to entertain the possibility of reverting to unsupervised parenting time.  The mother appealed the decision, and the appeals court reversed it.

Contact Schwartz | White About Revising Your Supervised Parenting Plan

A South Florida family law attorney can help you get your unsupervised parenting time back if the court has ordered supervised parenting time.  Contact Schwartz | White in Boca Raton, Florida about your case.

Source:

scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=7546750452221979476&q=divorce+management&hl=en&as_sdt=4,10&as_ylo=2015&as_yhi=2025