Out of State without Permission
What to do if the other parent took your child out of state without permission? I’m Tulsa Attorney James Wirth, that’s the question that we have. There’s actually a little bit more to the question. It says, I have joint custody of my daughter. The mother took my daughter out of state without any prior written notice or permission. What can be done about this? Okay, so there’s a few questions that I have.
First off, it says that it’s joint custody. Joint custody can generally mean one thing, but also, joint custody means that you’ve got a joint child custody plan that’s been entered as an order of the court, and you can put, by agreement or by court order, a lot of different things in there. So one joint child custody plan might be different than another, but generally speaking, if we’re talking about joint custody, that means, unless it’s the simple decisions of what to do on a day-to-day basis during visitation, the big decisions require both parties to agree. So anything that require both parties to agree and one parent doesn’t agree, that means they’re violating the joint child custody plan. So what do you do about that?
Also, anytime you got a joint child custody plan, you generally have a physical custody schedule. So when she took the child out of state, did that interfere with your schedule? Did you miss your days? That would be a violation of the court order that’s even more clear. And then, of course, did she return with the child timely when she was supposed to? Based on the question, it’s not super clear, but it sounds like probably she took the child out of state and then brought the child back. So there are potentially one or two violations of the court order for doing that. So what do you do when somebody violates court order?
Considering Legal Options
Well, there’s a few different things. You could file a contempt citation and take it before the court. The court would probably not be too happy about that because it’s not a serious enough violation, and because it’s resolved by the time it gets into court. So for something like this, my recommendation would probably be file for a parenting coordinator. So when these issues come up that aren’t big enough to get it before a judge, where you’ve gotta spend a lot of money and wait a long time to get into court, parenting coordinator once appointed, if it’s a good one, you can email them the issue, they email the other side, get the feedback, and then they make a decision there or recommendation that can become an order of the court if there’s no objection within 10 days.
So that’s a quick way to get little things taken care of without bogging everything down and taking too long. Because the court systems, family law court systems, particularly in Tulsa County, it takes too long and it’s too expensive to do anything that doesn’t arise to as being super serious. So having an option of having a parenting coordinator to get things done more cheaply and quicker is generally the better way to go. But if you’re dealing with a circumstance, you’re probably gonna wanna talk to an attorney to get specific advice for your circumstances.
Take Action and Schedule a Strategy Session
To do that and schedule an appointment in my office, go online to MakeLawEasy.com. Alternatively, you can reach out to us for an initial strategy session. Don’t let these issues go unresolved, take the necessary steps to protect your rights and your child’s well-being.
