What Can You Do If the Other Parent Isn’t Letting You See the Kids?

In situations where you are living in a separate household from your child, it may be a challenge to maintain a relationship with your kids. For most parents, maintaining ongoing contact with sons and daughters is a top priority.  This means you might need to fight for access to your children if you are being denied the right to see them. 

If the other parent isn’t letting you see the kids, you may have a variety of legal options open to you depending upon the specific circumstances. If you already have a custody agreement in place, you can get help to enforce it or modify it. If you don’t have a custody plan in place, you can petition the court so one is created. An Irvine child custody lawyer at Brown & Charbonneau, LLP can help you to explore the legal tools available to you to help you get access to your children.

What Can You Do If the Other Parent Isn’t Letting You See the Kids?

Options if the other parent isn’t letting you see the kids will depend upon the current state of your custody arrangement.  You may be able to:

• Petition the court for custody. If you don’t already have an agreement in place, ask to have one created. You and the other parent may be sent to mediation to try to work out a parenting plan, but if you can’t agree then the court will step in and the judge will award custody based on what is in the best interests of the child.
• Petition the court to modify custody. If there’s an agreement in place but you don’t have visitation time or shared custody, you may want to ask the court to make a change. You’ll have to show the court that a material change in circumstances justifies a new custody order, and that it is in the child’s best interest to have time with you.
• Petition the court to enforce a custody order. If you have a custody agreement in place that gives you time with your children and the other parent is not following the agreement, you can get legal help enforcing the custody order.  The judge will order compliance, and the other parent could be held in contempt and face serious legal consequences for depriving you of access to your children in violation of a court order.

If you are seeking custody for the first time or are hoping a custody agreement will be modified to give you more time with the kids, you should be prepared to convince the court you can provide a stable home environment. Judges usually aim to help children maintain a relationship with both parents, so you should likely be able to get at least some type of visitation or shared custody unless there is a specific reason why the judge feels this would be unsafe or inappropriate.

To learn more about what you can do if the other parent isn’t letting you see the kids, and to get help arguing for more time with your children, contact the Irvine child custody lawyers at Brown & Charbonneau, LLP now. Our legal professionals will explain your options and advocate for you.