My son has lived with me majority of the time since he was five years old. His father is trying to take me to court regarding custody issues. How can I get sole custody?

Question:

My son has lived with me majority of the time since he was five years old. His father is trying to take me to court regarding custody issues. How can I get sole custody?

I married and divorced my son’s father when he was about 5 years ago. The judge told me I couldn’t make him take his son, even though we had a parenting plan. For the first couple years after the divorce he didn’t see my son very often. My ex-husband would come around every 3-6 months to see him. Now he sees him every 2 to 3 months. Whenever he finds the time to ask. I have advised him to give me weeks notice if he wants to take him, because we have a lot of family, and are always busy. He has been asking a few days before the day he wants to take him, but we already have plans. Now he thinks I’m lying to him when he asked me for the first time in a weeks notice that we are busy. His step-dad has been raising my child with me,since he was one years old. Now his Father is saying he wants to get a lawyer, should I find a lawyer as well?

Answer:

If there is a court order that says father is entitled to certain visitation time, you do not have the right to arbitrarily impose a requirement that dad give you additional notice.

For example, if the Orders say dad has every other weekend, dad has every other weekend. If he shows up, he has court ordered time.

You may want to go back and ask the court to modify his visitation to require him to give you a weeks notice if he is sporadic at exercising his visitation, but you can not modify the visitation orders on your own.

Sounds like it might be a good time to seek a consultation with an experienced family law attorney to discuss your options.

Good luck!

Patrick Sampair
The Sampair Group, PLLC

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