Visitation Rights In New Jersey
Our New Jersey Parental Visitation Rights Lawyers Can Help You
One of the key elements of many child custody agreements in New Jersey involves visitation rights. This basically refers to how much time children spend with each parent or legal guardian. Visitation rights agreements can be very detailed and outline exactly when and where children spend time with their parents.
That’s why it’s important to create a visitation rights agreement that best suits your life and your child’s best interests. Our New Jersey child visitation rights attorneys at Williams Law Group, LLC can help. We know how the legal system works in New Jersey when it comes to child custody and visitation agreements. As a result, we can work with you to create the right parental visitation rights agreement for your family.
– Shelly P.
What Are Common Visitation Rights Agreements?
In general, there are certain types of common visitation rights agreements involving children and child custody in New Jersey:
Below, you learn more about each one. We also strongly encourage you to talk with an experienced New Jersey child custody lawyer about visitation rights agreements and the options available to you. Simply contact us and schedule an appointment right now with an experienced New Jersey visitation rights attorney focused on your best interests.
Parental Visitation
Following a divorce, it is in the best interest of children for parents to put aside their differences and co-parent in a harmonious manner. After all, it is difficult enough for the children that their family has been split in two. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work out this way as the underlying dynamics in the relationship that lead parents to divorce can lead to questionable decisions following the divorce.
Withholding child visitation is an example of poor decision-making and is far too common. If this happens to you, do not despair. You have some options that a child custody lawyer may be able to assist with. custody case and determine if you could fight for parental visitation rights.
Situations Where Parental Visitation is Occasionally Withheld
In New Jersey, one scenario is that the child’s custodial parent is occasionally withholding your visitation. Standard visitation orders or agreements have provisions that if a custodial parent fails to comply with the schedule, the parent deprived of visitation is entitled to “make-up” parenting time. In other words, the lost visit can be made up at another time. Ideally, you and the custodial parent can reach an agreement to schedule this makeup visit. It is a good idea to keep a calendar of withheld visits, because if an agreement cannot be reached as to make-up visits, you may need to get an order from the court for that make-up time.
Cases Involving Frequent Withholding of Parental Visitation Rights
Sometimes, visitation is frequently withheld. A common reason that we see this happen is that the custodial parent does not believe that you are paying your child support in a timely manner, or not paying enough. They believe that this entitles them to retaliate by cutting off your visitation. This is a false belief and a misunderstanding of the law. Contrary to what the custodial parent believes, your parenting time and your child support order are entirely separate and distinct in the eyes of the law. Failure to allow parenting time is a violation of your visitation order.
If the custodial parent violates an order in New Jersey, your first option is for you or your attorney to speak with the custodial parent to reason with them and re-establish visitation. This doesn’t always work. Another option is to call the police to enforce the court order. However, many local law enforcement agencies are hesitant to become involved unless there is some element of danger to a child or parent. The most successful method of enforcing your visitation rights is by hiring an attorney to seek enforcement from the court. The court has the authority to admonish the custodial parent, to enter temporary orders regarding custody and parenting time, to award fees, and to order other arrangements to facilitate visitation.
When Your Visitation is Being Interfered With
Another common scenario is that a custodial parent is interfering with your child visitation. Interference is basically the act of depriving or inhibiting the parent-child relationship of the other parent. This can begin in subtle ways, such as regularly scheduled school activities and overnights with their friends during your visitation periods. It can also include preventing phone or email contact between you and the child. Another destructive method of interference is the custodial parent consistently disparaging you in front of the child, effectively turning the child against you. Why would your child want to visit with you if they believe you are a villain?
The courts take interference with child custody very seriously. Some remedies available to the court are to order the custodial parent to pay fees, such as child or family therapy. The custodial parent may also have to pay for attorneys’ fees or other expenses. The court can also enter temporary orders giving you custody. Extreme conduct like willfully defying court orders and concealing the child can result in a second to fourth-degree criminal offense and imprisonment.
A New Jersey Attorney Can Help with Problems Surrounding Parental Visitation
If your court-ordered visitation is being withheld, it is incredibly important to follow the following advice. First, don’t lash out in anger or attempt to retaliate in some way. This is bad for the children and will not help you get additional parenting time. In fact, it may reinforce the custodial parent’s arguments in court. In addition, do not withhold child support. Child support and visitation are entirely separate considerations for courts. In fact, failure to pay child support is a violation of your child support order and can result in a contempt finding and even imprisonment. Instead, contact our office to review your options. You have rights and we are in the business of enforcing those rights.
If your parental visitation with your children is being withheld, contact us. We will fight for you and petition the court to enforce your order. Don’t lose your cool, let the attorneys at Williams Law Group, LLC lead you through this difficult experience. To learn how we could help you with parental visitation in a New Jersey child custody case, call today.
Grandparent Visitation
Many children benefit immensely from spending quality time with their grandparents and other extended family members. Unfortunately, when parents separate or disagree on custody, these grandparents can lose contact with the child when the parents are not cooperative.
If the grandparent had played a significant role in the child’s life, the child can suffer. To counteract this, state courts can grant grandparents rights to visitation with grandchildren in certain limited circumstances. Grandparents can obtain a legally enforceable visitation order from the court.
How Grandparents Can Get Visitation Rights in New Jersey
In New Jersey, grandparents do not have inherent visitation rights. They have to first ask the court to grant them these rights, and then, only after first making an attempt to resolve the dispute with the parents. Once the court grants visitation rights for the grandparent, the parents have to comply. The grandparent asking for visitation rights must prove that the visitation would be in the best interests of the child.
Doing so can be difficult, especially when the parents disagree. But there are many circumstances where visitation with a grandparent is beneficial to a child. For example, if one parent loses custody and is no longer involved in the child’s life, the parent’s parent may also lose contact as well, through no fault of their own.
In this scenario, the child may suffer from not spending time with the grandparent, especially if that child had formed a close and connected bond with him or her. The state courts recognize the importance of bonds between children and their family members and thus have the authority to issue a visitation order for grandparents and siblings.
Factors Considered When Granting These Rights
You should keep in mind, however, that the nature of your relationship with your grandchild and the historic frequency with which you spent time with him or her are factors the judge will consider. Similarly, the judge will consider the reasons why the parents do not agree on the grandparent having visitation.
Many factors will come into play, which is why these cases can be so complex. Most notably, it is not enough to simply prove “best interests” of the child. You must demonstrate that your bond with the grandchild is such that the child will suffer psychological harm by having that relationship severed. That usually requires active involvement and frequent contact, at a minimum.
Grandparents can also request custody in circumstances where the parents have lost their parental rights. Consult with an experienced New Jersey child custody attorney if you are a grandparent seeking visitation rights with your grandchild. The time a child spends with his or her extended family is particularly important.
Not being able to see such family members can be detrimental to a child, but not always. Making an application to the court for visitation rights can be difficult, and you bear the burden of proof. An attorney can help you navigate the process and help you demonstrate to the court that you need to remain a part of your grandchild’s life.
Supervised Visitation
Supervised visitation means that an adult appointed by the court or the New Jersey Division of Child Protection and Permanency (DCPP) will monitor all visits that a parent has with their child. If a parent’s behavior indicates that child abuse, mental health problems, medical disability, or substance addiction may put the child at risk of harm, then visitation of the parent with their child may be supervised.
In general, to have supervised visitation in place, the court must find that a child is likely to be harmed if they are left unsupervised with the parent in question. This may be temporary until the supervised parent shows some type of improvement and the child is no longer at risk.
What Does Supervised Visitation Look Like?
During supervised visitation, there will either be a Division employee or an authorized third-party present for the duration of the visit. This third party may include a family member, or a family friend approved by the court. In either scenario, the supervisor must be aware of the order, and agree to fully supervised visitation between the child and the parent. The supervisor must stay within what the court refers to as sight and sound supervision at all times during the visit.
This means that the parent must be in the presence of this supervisor throughout their entire visit with their child. Under no circumstances can the parent be alone with their child. Additionally, during the time that a parent is exercising supervised visitation, their normal parenting time schedule with their child may change. For example, a parent may no longer be permitted to exercise overnight visitations with their child during a time when their visits must be supervised. Additionally, a party’s regular parenting time may be shortened, which allows that supervisor to be present.
Requesting Supervised Visits in New Jersey
One parent may want to request supervised visitation when they have concerns that the children’s other parent is placing them at risk due to untreated mental health conditions, medical conditions, or concerns that the child is being abused or neglected.
The first step someone should take when trying to pursue supervised visitation is to consult with a local attorney who is knowledgeable in this area of the law. This could help to ensure that they have the information necessary to provide to the court in support of their request. When someone is requesting this type of relief from the court, they must be able to prove to the court that there is some type of child abuse, neglect or risk of harm. If there is not a valid concern for abuse or neglect, this could cause the court to order that the Division of Child Protection and Permanency become involved and investigate the family. Once a parent compiles this information, the next step would be to file a motion with the court requesting a supervisor during these visits.
A parent may not want to request supervision if the concerns that they have regarding the other parent cannot be supported. Additionally, requesting supervised visitation could cause a whole host of issues for the family in general, especially if it looks like one parent is requesting this type of visitation out of spite or for an unsubstantiated reason.
How to Remove a Supervisor Requirement
Supervised visitation will be in place until the court finds that a parent has rectified the issue that led to the requirement of supervised visitation or that they have made significant progress, and the child is no longer at risk of harm. Therefore, the time frame of this type of order is on a case-by-case analysis.
A parent will need to return to court to modify the order, as they do not expire on their own unless there is specific language that addresses this. A parent would have to file a notice of motion to modify parenting time, and then explain to the court that there has been a change in circumstances warranting that parenting time no longer be supervised. After this, one of two things can happen, if the other parent is in agreement, a consent order can be signed, but if the other parent is not in agreement, then the court would hold a hearing that allows both sides to make a case.
A New Jersey supervised visitation lawyer at Williams Law Group, LLC can help with the process for modifying a supervised visitation order. We know how the system works and how this request needs to be done. Additionally, our legal team understands exactly what the court is looking for in terms of the progress a parent has made, any compliance with previous court orders and the proof needed to show the court that a child is no longer at risk of harm if that supervision is lifted.
Interstate Visitation
Interstate child custody agreements involve situations where one parent or adult who has a legal right to see a child lives in another state. As a response to frequent attempts by non-custodial parents to take their children across state lines without the approval of the custodial parent, the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (UCCJEA) was established to provide a uniform (i.e., nationwide) law that protects children from being abducted by non-custodial parents.
The child’s home state is typically the jurisdiction under which a custody order is issued. When parents live in separate states, and custody disputes arise, however, non-custodial parents have been known to try to take the child out of the home state and seek custody under the jurisdiction of their own state.
Unfortunately, some parents have been successful in doing this. For obvious reasons, these conflicts significantly affect the child in question. As a child custody lawyer in New Jersey can explain, the UCCJEA was created, in part, to discourage non-custodial parents from doing this and to protect jurisdictional rights.
Protection and Enforcement of These Agreements in New Jersey
The UCCJEA includes many provisions that protect children from non-custodial parental abduction, also called parental kidnapping, and establish rules on what courts have jurisdiction over child custody disputes. Essentially, the UCCJEA establishes jurisdiction over a custody order and protects that jurisdiction. This means that a parent cannot take the child to another state to modify the custodial order under another jurisdiction (i.e., court). The custody order is protected from modification as long as the state that issued the order retains jurisdiction, but temporary jurisdictional changes can be made under emergency circumstances. The UCCJEA also provides another valuable layer of protection; it allows interstate enforcement of custody orders. This is an important protection for both custodial and non-custodial parents who may move from state to state while their children grow up.
In New Jersey, custody orders are too often violated, and the UCCJEA was promulgated, in part, to help protect and enforce valid custody orders and allow for interstate enforcement. A custody dispute can arise at any time and in any state, and the best way to prevent custodial interference is to be aware of your rights and enforce the existing custody order you have.
If you have concerns about custodial interference, you should speak with an experienced New Jersey child custody attorney at Williams Law Group, LLC to learn more about your legal rights. An attorney can advise you of your rights and help ensure you have a custody order in place that can protect them as well.