The Primary Parent Can File to Modify the Visitation
Video Transcribed: What are you to do when the parent who is getting a shared parenting credit is not exercising his or her visitation. I’m Oklahoma Lawyer James Wirth and that’s the question that we have. So under these circumstances, we’ve got a custody order in place.
We’ve got a visitation order in place. We’ve got a child support order in place. And the non-custodial parent or the secondary custodial parent has ordered a certain amount of shared parenting time. Over 120 nights per year, so that it starts to lower the child support obligation.
So they’ve got a significant amount of visitation. Due to that, it is lowering the amount that they would otherwise pay in child support, but now suddenly they’re not exercising the visitation like they’re supposed to. So what is the primary party or parent supposed to do under those circumstances? Well, that can be a ground to modify. So you can modify the visitation schedule and you can also modify child support as part of that.
And in fact, Oklahoma law allows you to get additional child support ordered for those time periods, where they got the credit, but they didn’t earn it because they weren’t exercising the time.
And this is all statutory and local in the child support guidelines can be found in title 43, section 118E, subsection E. It says failure to exercise or exercising more than the number of overnights upon which the parenting time adjustment is based is a material change of circumstances.
And that’s the magic language. Material change of circumstances. That’s the language that indicates that it would be grounds to file for a modification. If the court finds that the obligor has failed to exercise a significant number of overnights provided in the court order necessary to receive the parenting time adjustment, i.e., lower the child support.
In a proceeding to modify the child support, the court may establish the amount that the obligor has underpaid due to the application of the parenting time adjustment as a child support judgment, which may be enforceable in the same manner as any other child support judgment.
So long story short, the primary parent can file to modify the visitation and child support and request that more child support be ordered due to them getting credit for a shared parenting time adjustment, where they didn’t even exercise that time. So that’s what they can do. They can file to modify.
They can request additional child support for that time that they didn’t. And also what the court could do as well if they make a find and they weren’t properly exercising the visitation, the court can order under that same statute that they do not get credit for the shared parenting for the next 12 months.
And then it is on the obligor, the secondary custodial parent to file a petition with the court to try to get that shared parenting back after they can demonstrate 12 months of properly exercising their time. So this statute’s actually pretty strict on that secondary custodial parent or that non-custodial parent.
Again, that’s title 43, section 118E. If you’ve got any questions about the shared Oklahoma parenting credit or filing if you need to speak to an Oklahoma family law attorney or a Tulsa Child Custody Attorney please visit makelaweasy.com
