The hill I should die on???

[ProSeDadinMD]

What is the name of your state? MD

Ok, in reading some posts recently about CP’s making decisions that rightly should be made jointly(school enrollment, moves, medical treatment, etc), I have noticed some suggestions regarding the filing of contempt charges.

While I have no real desire to start the recent mess all over again by doing so, would it be in my legal best interests to file contempt charges regarding …her… recent 40 mile move, and the subsequent enrollment of Little Miss Pro Se in a different school, which were both presented to me as a “fait accompli”, with no room for discussion and no approval on my part?

Just curious.

 

[Zephyr]

what do your court orders specify regarding moves and school? how does this move affect your parenting time?

 

[ProSeDadinMD]

what do your court orders specify regarding moves and school? how does this move affect your parenting time?

There isn't anything in our orders about moves and school. We have joint legal custody.

The net effect of the move is that rather than getting home after picking up LMPS on our Wednesday overnights at 6:15pm or so, it will now be 7pm or later, and in order to return her in time for school and to make it to work on time, we now have to leave the house before 6am(meaning that we get home later and she has to go to bed earlier so that we can be up in the morning, have breakfast,etc.) It basically is cutting the time we can spend together on those nights in half.

 

[CJane]

Didn't she move quite awhile ago? Generally, you have a set period of time to dispute the move or adjust the parenting plan after notification or after a move.

If your order doesn't address moves or schooling, then she can't be in contempt, but she IS still bound by statute to notify you properly of a move.

In my case, I waited more than a YEAR to file contempt against my ex once the new order was filed. He began violating it immediately, but I waited and collected information and amassed gave him a million chances to follow the order, let him sort of get used to joint custody, hoping then he'd straighten up.

Finally, I filed a 13 page contempt motion against him this week.

I can't tell you if it's a hill worth dying on, not really. But I CAN tell you that if you take it to court, it's unlikely - all by itself - to have much impact on anything. You're still going to have to get home after 7 and leave before 6 because they're not going to make her move back, and they're not going to award you primary custody based on that one thing. What it WILL do is make the relationship you have with LMPS's mother EVEN MORE contentious than it is right now.

 

[wileybunch]

There isn't anything in our orders about moves and school. We have joint legal custody.

The net effect of the move is that rather than getting home after picking up LMPS on our Wednesday overnights at 6:15pm or so, it will now be 7pm or later, and in order to return her in time for school and to make it to work on time, we now have to leave the house before 6am(meaning that we get home later and she has to go to bed earlier so that we can be up in the morning, have breakfast,etc.) It basically is cutting the time we can spend together on those nights in half.

I don't know about contempt for what she did.
As far as tie, are you supposed to share the transportation? If so, can Mom drop her off at the scheduled visitation start time and you bring her back to school in the AM?

 

[LdiJ]

I don't know about contempt for what she did.
As far as tie, are you supposed to share the transportation? If so, can Mom drop her off at the scheduled visitation start time and you bring her back to school in the AM?

Meeting half way would likely be a more viable solution....assuming that mom and dad work the same hours.

 

[wileybunch]

Meeting half way would likely be a more viable solution....assuming that mom and dad work the same hours.

That works, too. If he is providing transportation both ways it wouldn't leave much waking time outside the car to spend together.

 

[ProSeDadinMD]

Thanks for the replies...

We work pretty much the same hours. Our last order from '02 has me doing all the driving, and this order didn't change that.

If I bring up meeting halfway and state that it's because of the limits it's putting on our time, ...she...will try and use it as another excuse to want to take away my midweek overnights.