When you go through a divorce, it will be extremely important to be aware of visitation rights and various custody considerations. This will help to provide you with the experience necessary to make the best decision for the well-being of your children during your divorce. Working with a divorce attorney is incredibly important to provide you with protection throughout your divorce process. Here is some important information about visitation rights that can help to ensure that you are more informed regarding what to expect through your divorce.

Court Considerations

In many situations, especially during a contested divorce, a court will make many of the final decisions. This is common in divorces that include children, due to the impact that the factors of the divorce can have on your children. A court will consider many various things when they are deciding on the best arrangement for your children. They will pay special attention to the ability of each parent to care properly for the children. They will also consider any past history of abuse, the health of the children, and the age of the children. Another court consideration will be the emotional ties between the children and parents and the impact that the arrangement will have on those ties.

Scheduled Visitation

There are several different kinds of visitation. Understanding the different kinds of visitation will ensure that you are better equipped to make the right decisions. Scheduled visitation is an incredibly common type of visitation. During this type of visitation, there will be specific times set in order to identify when each parent will spend time with the children. This type of visitation arrangement can often help to prevent conflicts, miscommunication, and confusion between each party. It ensures that everyone knows exactly when they will have time with the children. It is common for scheduled visitation to include special occasions, holidays, and vacations.

Supervised Visitation

There are some situations in which the visitation will be required to be supervised in order for one of the parents to spend time with the children. This occurs when the court is concerned that the well-being or safety of the children may be at risk during a visit. During a supervised visitation, the meeting may be supervised by a professional agency, another adult, or even yourself. In some situations, supervised visitations are mandated specifically because of a concern for the safety of the child, but rather because the child and parent aren’t familiar with each other yet. This allows time for the two individuals to become better acquainted and more comfortable before they are left alone together.

No Visitation

In extreme situations, a court may revoke visitation rights. This is often when the court decides that providing visitation rights for a child may cause the child to be harmed either physically or emotionally. If this is determined, the visitation rights may be revoked.

Reasonable Visitation

Reasonable visitation is often only a solution for an amicable divorce because it will require each party to communicate clearly with each other. These visitation arrangements don’t have the same amount of detail involved as scheduled visitation. Reasonable visitation arrangements tend to be much more open-ended because the visitation time isn’t spelled out ion advance. This also allows them to be more flexible, which may be a better solution to meet specific needs. Keep in mind that reasonable visitation rights may not be enforceable by a court when one party doesn’t adhere to the agreement. You may need a court order to provide you with legal recourse for agreement violations.

Do you Need a Court Order?

In general, when both of the parties involved make an agreement, it will be considered binding. However, even though the agreement is binding, you may not be able to have it enforced by the court if it hasn’t been made into a court order. In order to provide you with more thorough protection, you may want to consider working with a divorce order in order to obtain a court order for your visitation rights or custody arrangement.

Differences Between Custody and Visitation Rights

When you are discussing visitation rights, it will be important to ensure that you understand the differences between custody arrangements and visitation rights. Considerations that regard custody generally refer to the responsibilities and rights of each parent pertaining to the care of the children. For example, where the children live, and child support payments will all be discussed under the custody agreement. Visitations are generally considered when it is less than half of the time that the children spend with the parent. A visitation is usually concerned with the time that each parent will spend with the children, as well as the manner in which they are allowed to do so.  

A divorce attorney is an incredibly important part of obtaining the best outcome for your divorce process. When you understand visitation rights, you will likely be better able to make the best decision for your children. This can go a long way toward providing them with protecting and ensuring that they are as happy as possible. To learn more about visitation rights or for representation throughout your divorce process, contact us at Ammon Nelson Law today!