Nothing But Love :: golf blogger

Lessons in the Law: Visitation

I don't like doing domestic relations cases, but I took one on as a favor. It was about visitation. The mother was, for lack of a better word, blackmailing the father, dangling visitation like carrot before a donkey, getting him to toe the line, so to speak, so he could see his 3-year-old daughter. I filed something with he court. The two of them talked. They decided on a visitation schedule, which the court approved. Simple enough.

Things were going well. He would consistently pick up the child at the appointed 10 a.m. and bring the child to Mom's house at about 7:15 p.m., which was 45 minutes earlier than she agreed and the court ordered. The child was calling him "Dad," Mom's relatives opined that things were, in fact, going very well, and the child was happy to see her "Dad." Apparently, things were going too well for Dad because Mom went off and got a lawyer, who filed a request to modify visitation.

Setting aside all the inflammatory rhetoric in the legal papers about his prior history, what it came down to was that Mom was fearful that Dad was going to take the child to A.A. meetings and Mom wanted him to bring the child home by 7. He had not taken the child to A.A. meetings nor did he plan that. Mom thought 8 p.m. for the return time, which was what she had agreed upon and the court approved, was too late, even though Dad was consistently returning the child by 7:15. So, what were we fighting about? 15 fucking minutes.

Solution proposed by Dad's lawyer: He won't take the child to A.A. meetings. It shall be written that the child will be returned at 7 p.m. And he will be entitled to pick the child up at 9:30 instead of 10.

And the other side agreed. Mom was very happy. She got what she wanted. She won.

But when Mom figures out that Dad is, in reality, visiting with his child longer than he was before, we will be back in court.

I'm wondering why we were even in court. Why?

Posted by Bill at December 7, 2005 02:41 PM