Call police or file a contempt charge on Mon?

[luvisabattle]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Washington

My ex or his family have had our daughter for the last two weekends in a row due to the ****** L. King holiday. In our parenting plan it states that if one parent has our daughter for two weekends the weekends will be adjusted so that neither parent will go without seeing her for 2 weeks in a row. He just notified me that he picked her up from school and is keeping her for the weekend. He's justifying this because it says "weeks" instead of ''weekends" and I have her during the week. It's clearly a typo and he's using it against me. I have filed with the court to meet with him in mediation (our court ordered resolution process) and he's gone back and forth - disagreeing to meet and then just last week agreeing to me. I wanted to file a motion to clarify this issue along with several others and he's just playing games.

Can I call the police and ask for assistence in getting her back (we have many plans that I know she's stressing about right now.)

or do I just file a contempt order on Monday?

 

[Banned_Princess]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Washington



Can I call the police and ask for assistence in getting her back (we have many plans that I know she's stressing about right now.)

or do I just file a contempt order on Monday?

No the police will be of no assistance to you in this instance.

File for contempt on monday, but what makes you think it is a typo. Even typos that have not been fixed are in the order.

So you are saying ex had his daughter last weekend, then brought her back to you... but you had her during the week..
now he wants her for a second weekend in a row?



and you say no because....

 

[LdiJ]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Washington

My ex or his family have had our daughter for the last two weekends in a row due to the ****** L. King holiday. In our parenting plan it states that if one parent has our daughter for two weekends the weekends will be adjusted so that neither parent will go without seeing her for 2 weeks in a row. He just notified me that he picked her up from school and is keeping her for the weekend. He's justifying this because it says "weeks" instead of ''weekends" and I have her during the week. It's clearly a typo and he's using it against me. I have filed with the court to meet with him in mediation (our court ordered resolution process) and he's gone back and forth - disagreeing to meet and then just last week agreeing to me. I wanted to file a motion to clarify this issue along with several others and he's just playing games.

Can I call the police and ask for assistence in getting her back (we have many plans that I know she's stressing about right now.)

or do I just file a contempt order on Monday?

Didn't he pull this on you once before?...or more than once before? Its time to take it back to court for the language to be corrected.

The police aren't going to help you get her back. They are going to tell you to take it to court.

However, you should have known that dad was going to pull this and should have picked her up first.

 

[Banned_Princess]

Didn't he pull this on you once before?...or more than once before? Its time to take it back to court for the language to be corrected.

The police aren't going to help you get her back. They are going to tell you to take it to court.

However, you should have known that dad was going to pull this and should have picked her up first.

Ah, history.

In that case then yes, I agree it is about time for you to have the language of the order clarified, or fixed.

 

[luvisabattle]

He has gone both ways - withheld her for three weeks during the summer and then in sept not picking her up for three weekends in a row.

He had her the 9th and the 16th and now the 23rd.

So to be clear it does say "weeks" and I just had her this morning. Does that mean he can pick her up every weekend? Because I have her every weekday...

So then I cant file contempt if that is true.

 

[Ronin]

Contempt of what?

Following the plain letter of an order?

Typo or not, if that is what is in the order, then it stands as written. Any such errors should have been corrected prior to signing the order. Anyone who has a proposed order that is to be signed, should read and reread it several times to avoid such problems.

A motion for clarification may be more appropriate, but it may take a modification of the order to correct this.

 

[luvisabattle]

The exact words are "the alternating weekend pattern will be adjusted" that means weekends doesn't it?

 

[LdiJ]

Ah, history.

In that case then yes, I agree it is about time for you to have the language of the order clarified, or fixed.

Yep, and its not a second weekend in a row, its a third weekend in a row.

He had the weekend before MLK weekend. The MLK weekend was his holiday. That makes two weekends in a row. Under the intent of their order that means that the rotation restarted and this weekend was mom's. However he took this weekend too.

 

[luvisabattle]

I'm not clear how I should handle this. So no on the contempt (even though he clearly is doing this to keep me from having her this weekend) and file a motion for clarification on Monday?

Our PP has a clause that the resolution process is mediation first, but my daughter's father and his lawyer have been stringing me along on that. Cant I file with the court based on that fact?

 

[LdiJ]

I'm not clear how I should handle this. So no on the contempt (even though he clearly is doing this to keep me from having her this weekend) and file a motion for clarification on Monday?

Our PP has a clause that the resolution process is mediation first, but my daughter's father and his lawyer have been stringing me along on that. Cant I file with the court based on that fact?

You could try filing for contempt, but if you do, I would include in the motion a request for clarification based on what has been going on, as well. I doubt that dad would actually get held in contempt because the wording is poor, but you might end up with the same result...a clarification.

However, if dad has an attorney and you don't, you may continue to get strung along.

However, to be honest, I would likely want to change the whole thing if I were in your shoes. I would want the rotation to stay consistant and each of you simply lose a weekend if a holiday causes you to lose one. Yes, that means that occasionally one of you will get three weekends in a row, but it will happen to both of you over time, and its much easier to enforce.

 

[luvisabattle]

I agree with keeping the weekends in a firm rotation and loosing a weekend once in awhile. Not knowing if he's going to show up or not etc is causing a lot of problems for her.

We had some really fun plans (I just got my tax refund) this weekend that she has been looking forward to all week. It breaks my heart that she is there with them knowing she should be and wanting to be with me.

Thank you for your help

 

[wileybunch]

Quite frankly, filing for contempt is pointless. More time, money -- yours, your attorney's, the court's -- when what you need it to modify the order. If this has been an issue in the past, you should have taken care of it already. Dad's not going to get dinged so file a clean motion to have this modified and be in and out of this with as little emotional and financial investment as possible. Prior to filing, ask Dad if he'll agree to sign a stipulation that clarifies this language and provide the proposed language to him. If he won't then you'll know you tried to go the easiest route and he left you no choice but to file.

 

[luvisabattle]

I have asked him and his response is that the parenting plan is fine the way it is (because it works in his favor).

 

[wileybunch]

I have asked him and his response is that the parenting plan is fine the way it is (because it works in his favor).

Then file a motion to modify it.
I think it would be very wrong to send the police to his home over this. You wouldn't even be able to convince the police that's he's violating an order so not sure they would even want to go to his house to use their powers of persuasion to get him to relent. That's a huge waste of police resources for something you should have/need to take care of, but more than that, your child has to know of this drama. There's no reason for any of this. Clean up the order once and for all. And, I don't see how this works only in Dad's favor -- seems that anyone that happens to have a holiday weekend on the OTHER parents' time is whoever would "win out" in that situation and get 3 weekends in a row without modifying the language.

 

[profmum]

No police, certainly no contempt, and if Dad is not willing to mediate, this happens only on holiday weekends right and as Wiley said it won't favor your or dad? motion to clarify is the best, if dad keeps stringing and refuses to mediate, you can get the courts to order that as well and it will not bode well for Dad. Word of caution, this is divorce.. fairness is rarely the game sometimes..