PUBLISHER’S UPDATE – Blog Originally Published on January 16, 2010: It is time for another “BLAST FROM THE PAST!” After Court recently, my client thanked me and reminded me about writing this Blog about his case seven and a half years ago. I was once again representing this father in the same rural Ohio Juvenile Court. The child is now 13+ and about to start the 8th grade but really wanted to move out of Ohio to live primarily with Dad and his family and attend school in North Carolina. Dad’s perseverance once again paid off! After a very strong guardians report, the parties agreed to a 1 year trial period for their child to move to the Tar Heel State. This child is indeed blessed to have 2 excellent, loving, and caring parents willing to try to do what is in the child’s best interest! Good parenting by Dad and all his love and his fortitude did once again pay off!
A large body of research overwhelmingly suggests children do best when they have both a mother and a father involved in their lives. Specifically, children whose fathers participate in raising them do better in school, are less likely … Read More... “Blast From The Past: Fathers are Indeed Important!”
As a general rule, the payment of child support and visitation are two completely, separate issues in the eyes of the Court. Visitation rights are granted where it is in the “best interest of the child” to have such in place. They are not dependent upon the amount or payment of child support. Likewise, child support is determined according to the Child Support Guidelines and has very little to do with visitation. As a result, paying child support does not entitle a parent to visitation. And, if a parent has court-ordered visitation, it cannot be withheld because they have failed to pay their child support. However, in a recent case out of New York, the Appeals Court there held that support payments should have been suspended where the child was not required to abide by the ordered visitation schedule.
One of the most contentious issues that may arise in custody litigation is whether a non-parent has the right to exercise visitation with a particular child. Generally speaking, parents are imbued with an absolute right to determine who their child shall visit with under the Due Process Clause of the United States Constitution. This right was most clearly articulated in the United States Supreme Court’s seminal decision of Troxel v. Granville (2000), wherein the Court stated “so long as a parent adequately cares for his or her children (i.e., is fit), there will normally be no reason for the State to inject itself into the private realm of the family to further question the ability of that parent to make the best decisions concerning the rearing of that parent’s children.”