I Am Supposed to Have Placement This Weekend!

Nothing is more frustrating than looking forward to your period of placement with your children, only to have the other parent delay or deny the visit.  The holidays, especially, bring frustrated parents into police stations, and the voice mail of family law attorneys is overflowing. 

What do you do?

The sad answer is that, in the short run, there may be very little you can do.   You might take your placement order to the local police station, and ask them for their help.  Usually, though, this only makes the day even more frustrating.  If the other parent is not home, or if the other parent disputes the claim, the police will usually not take any action.  They will advise the aggrieved party to consult his or her family lawyer.

Similarly, there is almost nothing that a family law attorney can do, in the short run, to facilitate the placement.   Family lawyers can only work through the courts.   The courts are not in session over the weekend; and, even if they were, the judge will not hear an emergency motion unless life and limb are at stake-- which is not the case in denied placement.  Therefore, an enforcement of placement motion must be put onto the court's regular calendar for hearing.   This may be four to six weeks into the future.

The best way to respond when you are wrongfully denied a period of placement with your children is to calmly record the sequence of events.  You may be later required to testify as to what happened. 

The denial of one period of placement is probably best overlooked.   It is not worth the expense and the anxiety of filing a contempt motion.  However, if the custodial parent repeatedly, and wrongfully, denies you your periods of placement, you should consult your family law lawyer.  He will draft a contempt of court motion.   This motion will allege the facts support the claim (this is where your journal is important), and will seek an order from the court granting additional "make-up" periods of placement, as well as actual attorneys fees; and, perhaps, other relief as well.

Whatever you do when you are denied a period of placement, do not engage in "self-help" by engaging in violence, or by snatching the children away in a public place without the other parent knowing.  If you engage in such self-help, no court in the world will by sympathetic to your complaints.