There Is No Set Definition of Standard Visitation Under Oklahoma Law
Video Transcribed:
What is standard visitation in Oklahoma custody matters? I’m Tulsa Family Law Attorney James Wirth and we’re talking about visitation schedules. All right. So what is standard visitation? You hear that phrase thrown about a lot.
You might think that it has a very specific, uniform, formal definition. Well, it doesn’t exactly. There is no set definition of standard visitation under Oklahoma law. There are no set standard schedules under Oklahoma law or in case law.
However, there have been advisory guidelines that talk a little bit about these things. And certainly, standard visitation is something that we hear thrown about a lot. And some courts and individual judges may have their standard form, that’s pre-printed where you can fill it in at the courthouse. But for the most part, those don’t exist, but there is a general meaning for standard visitation. So what does standard visitation generally mean?
Standard visitation generally means that the non-custodial parent or the secondary custodial parent has every other weekend and alternating holidays. And that every other weekend is typically from Friday after school and then returning sometime Sunday evening every other weekend. And that’s the typical standard visitation, but it’s important to note that many people don’t call that standard visitation.
They call it standard minimum visitation, you hear that from judges a lot, the standard minimum visitation, meaning that we kind of start from this and we work our way up. There could be other things added to that.
Sometimes that means that you add a non-overnight visitation during the week. So maybe a couple of hours on a Wednesday evening would be added to that standard schedule.
But the important thing to note is that there is no dead set standard schedule as part of Oklahoma law. There’s just a general knowledge that when we talk about standard, that we mean every other weekend from Friday after school, to return on Sunday evening.
And then it’s more of a minimum standard than it is a standard that just could go by. So if you’ve got questions about your particular circumstances or more questions about other schedules, you’re probably going to want to talk to an Oklahoma family law attorney confidentially about that. To get that set up with somebody in my office, you can go to makelaweasy.com.
