One of the hardest parts of a divorce is dealing with parenting issues. Having tow separate homes can make things more difficult. That is why the courts in New Jersey want you to work together with your ex-spouse to create a parenting plan that outlines your visitation and custody. If you follow the plan, things should go smoothly and everyone should be happy. However, issues do come up. Two common issues are interference and not using parenting time.
According to the New Jersey Courts, interference is a severe issue. It involves the other parent trying to prevent you from seeing your child. This may be not adhering to the visitation schedule and bringing the child to you for your scheduled parenting time or it could be not returning the child at the end of parenting time. The first step in dealing with this is to go through mediation and get to the bottom of what is going on and why this is happening. If that does not help, you can file an incident report or a criminal complaint.
More common is when the other parent does not use his or her parenting time. This is disappointing for your child and can be detrimental to his or her emotional health. The best way to handle this is to begin with talking to your ex-spouse. Find out why he or she is not taking the scheduled visitation. If this does not help, then you can go to court and seek remedies. The court may make increases to child support to allow for the extra time you have your child, make changes to the parenting plan to accommodate your ex-spouse’s needs or to reduce visitation time. It is even possible, since this would be a violation of a court order, for the court to order community service or jail time. This information is for education and is not legal advice.
