QUESTION
What can be done if the parenting plan was written so that it only addresses the father?
Asked on Dec 14th, 2016 on Child Custody - California
More details to this question:
The parenting plan was written ambiguously by the father's attorney and did not specify the time that was given to the mother. It is only stated that the father has the child on odd years for vacation, holidays, and summer. Is it assumed by the court that the mother has the positive years? The mother has asked numerous times for the attorney to clarify the parenting order and is ignored and more importantly does not have the financial means to go to court regarding this. Does she risk going to jail/court if she just assumes the order is correct? She doesn't have the same financial means – attorney that the father does to fight these matters on every incident.
1 ANSWER
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Usually an order would state the time the child is with one parent and that the child is with the other parent at all other times. If the order does not state that the child is with the Father on a given day (alternate holiday for example) the other parent, Mother, is not risking legal action by having the child with her during that time. It may be advisable to go into court for clarification. It is not necessary for such a hearing to be expensive. The filing fee for a hearing (if there s no fee waiver) is not very high and an attorney is not mandatory. You should check the filing fee on the court website and when filling out the Request for Order form the box for custody or visitation should not be checked. The box for "other" should be checked and "clarification of order" should be written in.? However, before doing so you should have an attorney take a look at the order to see if the appropriate language is included and if a hearing is, in fact, necessary.
Answered on Feb 10th, 2017 at 5:42 AM