Modification of Parenting Time
Parenting Time Modification
“There is nothing permanent except change.” Heraclitus
You spend your time drafting a parenting time schedule that fits your life perfectly. And then you’re offered a promotion, or the other parent decides to move away, or your child’s school schedule changes, and it seems that you are at square one again. A parenting time or visitation order can be changed from time to time.
If you and the other parent can agree to the changes, an agreed-upon order can be entered. Often though, a proposed change in the parenting time order will increase one party’s parenting time, and the other parent is not so agreeable.
If a change in parenting time is needed because the other parent is just making poor life choices, the modification of parenting time is usually quite contested.
What Are the Steps to Change Parenting Time?
The first step is to determine why exactly the parenting time needs to be changed. We advise our clients to keep a journal to track problems and make notes about how their children are responding to the current schedule. The attorneys at Kraayeveld Family Law suggest that you do the same. The journal will help us to determine the problems and offer you a course of action.
Different problems require different solutions. For example,
- If you received a court order when your child was a baby, the judge may not have awarded you overnight parenting time. Now that your child is older, an increase in parenting time is only logical and appropriate.
- If you changed jobs, you may have additional time available to spend with your children. Or, the other parent works only limited hours before you separated, but now they have taken a full-time job, and the children are home alone while you are available to care for them.
- Most difficult of all, the other parent is simply making bad choices in life. Frequent moves, frequent school changes, frequent new partners all create a lot of instability for your children, and you want to give your children more stability.
After discussing the problems and possible solutions, the Kraayeveld Family Law team and you, as our client, will create a plan of action.
If you already have a parenting time order, your next step will be to show the judge a change in circumstances or proper cause. To show the judge a change in circumstances after the entry of a parenting time order and getting the order changed is easier than changing a custody order. When changing parenting time, the court will consider normal life changes as an appropriate change in circumstances.
Kraayeveld Family Law is Here for You Both in and Out of the Courtroom
When the attorneys at Kraayeveld Family Law determine that a change in circumstances has occurred, we will proceed with vigorously preparing your case for a hearing. Preparation is key to success. During this period of preparation, we will explore settlement. Because we are well prepared to proceed to trial, we obtain excellent results during mediation and settlement talks.
If your case goes to trial, the Kraayeveld Family Law team will support you and prepare for your case. We aggressively fight for your rights and obtain the best results possible for you. If you’re interested in joining the Kraayeveld Family Law team as one of our clients, please contact us. We’d love to talk to you.
We win our parenting time disputes because we thoroughly prepare your case and present the evidence you provide us. We win because we are tenacious and aggressive.