Child Custody and Visitation Agreements

CHILD VISITATION AGREEMENTS

You are free to agree to any custody
arrangement; however, custody agreements are
always subject to modification. Plus, absent a
court order, a judge might find that there was no
true "meeting of the minds" with regard to the
supposed contract.

For this reason, typically, child visitation
agreements are court-approved arrangements
regarding the time a child spends with his or her
non custodial parent after a divorce. When a
divorce involves child custody, the court (usually
the same judge) will decide the custody
arrangements to meet the needs and interests of
the children involved. In some cases, the court
will award sole custody to one parent. Usually,
child custody will be shared between the parents
and child visitation agreements will be created.

When a court awards joint custody to both
parents, there are two types of custody involved:
legal custody and physical custody. Legal
custody is the right to make decisions which
influence the child's life and physical custody is
who the child actually lives with. Typically in a
joint custody situation, one parent will have
primary physical custody of the child and the
other will have child visitation rights.

Court actually encourage divorcing parents to
decide the terms of child visitation agreements,
so long as they are able to agree. This means
that the parents have flexibility in deciding when
the child will spend time with each parent, so
long as child visitation agreements are approved
by the family court. That said, there are several
factors which prevent two parents from being
able to successfully create child visitation
agreements independent of the courts.

No Agreement
In cases involving allegations of abuse, for
example, it is virtually impossible for two parents
to agree to the terms of child visitation
agreements. In other cases, the parents may
have been successful in developing child
visitation agreements, but there were problems
in its implementation. When one parent is
consistently late for child visitation, skips visits
altogether, does not inform the custodial parent
of where s/he is taking the child, or there is a
hostile parent relationship, the court may
intercede to implement child visitation
agreements.

Enforcement
Upon reaching an agreement to schedule
visitation, both parents are bound by the terms of
court ordered child visitation agreements.
Compliance with child visitation agreements is
mandatory, even if the child does not wish to visit
the non-custodial parent. The only exception to
this rule is when the child's welfare is
compromised.

Types of Agreements
Child custody and visitation agreements typically
provide for the non custodial parent to have the
child every other weekend, some weekdays, and
some holidays. In some cases, the court will
encourage or order the non custodial parental
visits to be supervised by a neutral third party
adult. At any time, a parent can move the the
court to modify an agreement when necessary to
protect the interests of the child.