If the Court Overreacts to Your Ex-Spouse’s Hissy Fit, Your Lawyer Can Help You Get Back to a Normal Co-Parenting Schedule

Your ex-spouse’s volatile temper and impulsive decision making are some of the main reasons you are relieved to be divorced.  Remember when your ex saw a YouTube video about the dangers of plastic food packaging and abruptly tossed out the mostly full plastic bottles of ketchup, honey, and pancake syrup you had bought from Publix, replacing them with much more expensive items in glass bottles from Whole Foods?  Then there was the time that your son repeated a PG-13 rated joke he had heard on a TV show, so your ex deleted Netflix.  One time your ex blew up at you because you dried the clothes without using dryer sheets, and another time, your ex got mad at you because you used too many dryer sheets.  Thank goodness for parenting plans; at least, on certain days of the year, you and your kids no longer have to deal with your ex’s tantrums.  You would expect these overreactions from your ex, but not from the family law court.  Unfortunately, sometimes courts hastily approve changes to parenting plans because your ex says it’s an emergency and the judge takes your ex at her word.  If this happens, remember that you can modify a parenting plan an unlimited number of times between the time the court issues the parenting plan and the time the child reaches adulthood.  A Boca Raton child custody lawyer can help you get your parenting time back if the court took it away unfairly.

Cases Where Florida Courts Made Quick Decisions That Caused Major Disruptions for the Children of Divorced Parents

These are some cases where Florida courts hastily decided to place severe restrictions on parenting time in response to perceived emergencies:

• The parents divorced in Texas in 2010, and the father moved to Florida. Ever since the divorce, the mother made it hard for the father to exercise his parenting time.  When the pandemic started, the court was considering the father’s petition to enforce the parenting plan.  When the mother failed to appear at a Webex hearing, the court awarded 100 percent of the parenting time to the father.
• In 2015, the father had a mental health crisis during his parenting time and entered a psychiatric hospital, at which time the children’s aunt returned the children to their mother. The court awarded the mother 100 percent of the parenting time.  For years afterward, despite the father’s health being stable, the mother would not let the father see the children.
• In 2021, shortly after the parties filed for divorce, the father asked the court to require the mother to undergo regular drug testing as a condition of exercising her parenting time. One hour after the court ordered the mother to take a drug test, it suspended her parenting time before even giving her time to take the test.

In every case, the other parent was able to appeal the decision and modify the parenting plan so that the children could spend time with both parents.

Contact Schwartz | White About Getting Your Parenting Time Back

A South Florida family law attorney can help you if the court unfairly took away your parenting time.  Contact Schwartz | White in Boca Raton, Florida about your case.

Source:

scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=6828443702699529463&q=divorce+supervised&hl=en&as_sdt=4,10&as_ylo=2013&as_yhi=2023