After completing child custody negotiations between two spouses and receiving a final custody order from the Texas family court, it is each parent’s legal responsibility to adhere to the directions set in that order.
Yet many child custody lawyers find that in some cases, parents fail to follow the orders and legal enforcement is required.
When things such as visitation, child support payments, or adhering to other parts of the custody order start to fall apart, here are the things that attorneys suggest every parent should know about custody enforcement.
When Custody Orders Become A Problem
Though custody orders are approved after lengthy child custody negotiations at the time of the initial hearing, schedules and people’s lives do change.
Work statuses and schedules can change as can living situations, health issues, incarcerations, and other factors that can definitely strain the ability to adhere to the order.
Custody lawyers also find that disagreements between ex-spouses can also lead to intentional non-compliance to the custody order where visitation is prevented, support payments never arrive, and other responsibilities are shirked, leaving all the responsibilities to only one parent.
Regardless of why it happens, these problems with the custody order must be resolved.
What Can Be Done To Resolve Custody Order Problems?
Overall, custody attorneys recommend that parents try to negotiate scheduling conflicts and other minor issues with the standing custody order on their own if possible.
As long as the agreement is kept flexible to suit both parents’ needs while still adhering to the order as closely as possible, this is usually sufficient.
When negotiating child custody issues becomes a challenge or parents have a hard time agreeing on what changes should be made, attorneys also recommend that parents seek the help of a mediator.
Sometimes mediation is just enough to come up with a new plan, whether it remains a casual agreement between two parents who can trust each other to comply or it gets submitted to the family court to be approved as a new standing custody order.
Filing An Enforcement Case When Nothing Else Will Work
When one or both parents cannot negotiate with each other successfully to resolve minor custody order issues or if one parent fails to comply by cutting off visitation or stopping child support payments, it is time to get the family court involved once again.
If mediation has been sought and even that is unsuccessful, parents should reach out to their child custody lawyer again and begin the process of filing an enforcement case.
These cases can be time-consuming and require parents to collect evidence to prove that the other parent is not complying with the custody order.
Parents must again appear in court to state their cases before the judge, who will make changes to the order as needed.
The judge also has the ability to enforce the orders with the non-compliant parent by giving punishments such as fines or jail time.
Do You Need Help With Child Custody Enforcement?
The goal of child custody negotiations in Texas child custody cases is to fairly balance visitation, financial responsibility, and other responsibilities between both parents and reach an agreement that the family court will approve.
In developing those agreements, child custody lawyers recommend that parents learn to be flexible when necessary to help each other out.
When one parent refuses to comply with the standing custody order or work together to modify it, filing an enforcement order may be necessary.
Custody attorneys point out that parents should consider this a last effort as enforcement cases can be costly, lengthy, and the outcome dependent on the cause of the non-compliance in the first place.
