QUESTION

Child Custody/Visitation Rights and COVID-19

Asked on Mar 20th, 2020 on Child Custody - New Jersey
More details to this question:
My best friend has primary custody of her 6 year old son who has pulmonary issues. The father gets him Tuesday and Thursday fro 4 hours and every other weekend over night. With all that is going on with the COVID-19 virus, am I allowed to keep my son with me? My concern is that my ex is still working and so is his girlfriend and they are both around many people each and every day.
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1 ANSWER

Divorce Attorney serving Short Hills, NJ at Diamond & Diamond, P.A.
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None of us know how long that pandemic will last and I understand the concern about your son's health issue, so the issue is what was the father's parenting time plan with the child before this virus crisis occurred? If dad saw this son every wednesday night for dinner and every other weekend and now because of the crisis, im sure that he may feel that the crisis is being used improperly to prevent him from contact with your son.  If the issue was ultimately  presented to a court ( which it may end up taking place), a judge is going to focus on what credible proof was presented by you to justify not permitting the father to be with his son with the burden placed on you to prove it. The fact that dad may have to go to work each day, does not mean that he is not taking all available precautions to reduce the risk of spreading the virus. It also does not mean that his home is any less safe than your home. My suggestion is that you need to reach out to him and calmly discuss your concerns and plan to make suggestions for an alternate plan for him to be with his son. As a simple example, maybe under normal circumstances, you would never want him in your home, but maybe in this setting, you agree that he can visit with your son at your home for dinners ( including a more expansive plan than previously in place) during the week and maybe also inviting him over for every saturday or every sunday so that he can have quality time as well. It may make sense also that while he is in your house, you make other arrangements for yourself, so that you are not invading their time together. I am not telling you to try this plan if you are not comfortable with it, but I am simply trying  to give you an example of a possible temporary solution to a bad setting.
Answered on Mar 26th, 2020 at 8:31 AM

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