Do You Have to Force Your Child to go for Visitation? By Amy A. Edwards The courts assume it is almost always in a child’s best interest to spend time with both parents, even if a child isn’t getting along with a parent. If there is no agreement, a parent can file a custody case and reach an agreement in custody mediation, or have the judge enter an order that will include a visitation schedule. This article applies to cases in which parents have a child custody order. Cases that involve violence, substance abuse or serious dangers to children are outside of the scope of this article. Enforcing Visitation Orders: Contempt If the parent believes the other parent is willfully violating the order, he or she can file a motion to hold the other parent in civil or criminal contempt of court. Depending on circumstances, a judge has the authority to impose fines, make the other parent pay attorney’s fees, or in drastic cases, incarcerate the parent. The key is whether the parent is intentionally violating the order, which requires an answer to the question of what is reasonable for a parent to do in those circumstances. What is Willful Violation of the Order? Judges decide whether parents intentionally violate orders on a case-by-case basis. In assessing the problem, consider whether there is a different reason for the friction. In the midst of a divorce or breakup between parents, a child might become estranged with a parent that he or she perceives did something bad. Sometimes, children play one parent against the other, taking advantage of the difficulty parents have in trying to co-parent. Parents who use the child to communicate between them not only put their child in the middle; they inadvertently set themselves up for this tactic. A parent’s willful violation of an order is almost always shown by a pattern of behavior. A few examples include failing to have a child packed and ready for visitation, not bringing a child back to the other parent as scheduled, intentionally scheduling other events during the other parent’s visitation, or “canceling” visits and making no effort to schedule make-up the time. Most orders require that neither party speak badly about the other parent in front of the child. Discouraging the child from going with the other parent by doing that is also a willful violation. What Are the Parent’s...
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North Carolina Family Law Glossary Acceptance of Service. Signing a document that says you “accept” legal service of documents instead of having a sheriff hand them to you. This is usually done when both parties have attorneys. Affidavit or Sworn Statement. Written document signed under oath, under penalty of perjury, in the presence of a notary or other authorized person. It functions as sworn testimony. Answer and Counterclaims. An Answer is the defendant’s written response to the allegations that a plaintiff has made in the Complaint, the document that generates the lawsuit. The defendant usually adds his or her own claims, such as alimony or child custody, called Counterclaims. These two things usually happen together, resulting in one document called the Answer and Counterclaims. Then the plaintiff has the right to give his or her response to the Counterclaims, which is called the plaintiff’s Reply to the Answer. Arbitration. A form of alternative dispute resolution done only by agreement of the parties in North Carolina family law cases. Using this process, both parties hire an agreed-upon arbitrator who makes a decision/ruling in your case instead of using a judge. Child Custody Mediation. In North Carolina, it is a form of alternative dispute resolution that is usually mandatory after a custody case is filed. The mediator does not make any decisions in the case. Instead, the mediator helps parents work towards an agreed-upon visitation schedule. Only the parents or guardians are allowed to attend custody mediation. Agreements are signed by the parties and the judge, making them valid court orders. If mediation is unsuccessful, the case goes to court. Child Support. Money paid by one parent to the other to support a child. There is no “accounting” of how money is used. It is almost always based on the formula used by the NC Child Support Guidelines. The formula uses incomes, health insurance, work-related childcare and the number of overnights per year that a parent has with his or her child if it is 123 or more overnights. Child Support Enforcement/Services. Through attorneys and child support workers, it is a government agency that helps parents obtain and/or enforce child support orders, and in some cases determination of paternity and/or past government benefits provided for a minor child. Complaint. Document filed at the courthouse that starts a lawsuit, filed by a plaintiff. It contains claims, such as equitable distribution of marital...
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Harassment and Substantial Emotional Distress as Domestic Violence in North Carolina By Amy A. Edwards What Are the Grounds for DVPOs? There are four different grounds for the granting of a DVPO in North Carolina. One ground for getting a DVPO is any attempt someone makes to cause bodily injury, or intentionally causing bodily injury. Another ground is committing sexual assault against someone. These two grounds are more objective, looking at what any reasonable person would think about what happened. These grounds are sometimes easier to prove than the next two grounds. The court will grant a DVPO is someone places someone “in fear of imminent serious bodily injury . . . that rises to such a level as to inflict substantial emotional distress.” And the last ground for a DVPO is when someone places someone “in fear of continued harassment that rises to such a level as to inflict substantial emotional distress.” [1] These require the court to make a ruling about how the victim specifically feels about what happened, using a subjective standard instead of looking objectively at how any reasonable person in that situation would likely feel. In other words, the court can find that grounds for a DVPO just because the victim was fearful because of what the defendant did even if most reasonable people wouldn’t be fearful. What’s the Legal Definition of Harassment? Our criminal statutes for stalking define harassment as “[k]nowing conduct . . . directed at a specific person that torments, terrorizes, or terrifies that person and that serves no legitimate purpose.” There are many ways someone can commit harassment, including “written or printed communication or transmission, telephone, cellular, or other wireless telephonic communication, facsimile transmission, pager messages or transmissions, answering machine or voice mail messages or transmissions, and electronic mail messages or other computerized or electronic transmissions.” [2] What is Substantial Emotional Distress? For the court to enter a DVPO, there has to be harassment but it must also lead to substantial emotional distress to the person allegedly being harassed. The criminal laws define what this means in fuzzy terms: Significant mental suffering or distress that may, but does not necessarily, require medical or other professional treatment or counseling. [3] What meets the standard of harassment that causes this level distress? Like most legal issues, there’s no clearly defined answer because North Carolina courts look at each situation on a case-by-case basis. In one case, the...
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Deployed Parents Act: Rights of Non-Parents (Part 2 of 2) Part one of this article discusses the problems military parents faced before the Act, who qualifies for the protections of it, and what the benefits are. This article focuses on third parties (non-parents). Parents can make temporary agreements that allow non-parents to spend time with a child during deployment and ask the court to treat the agreement as a court order. Or, a judge will have a trial on the deploying parent’s request to appoint a non-parent to have temporary legal rights during deployment. Custodial Responsibility The Act uses Custodial Responsibility as a comprehensive term that includes any and all powers and duties relating to a child. The non-parent must be named a party to the lawsuit on a temporary basis during deployment. All types of Custodial Responsibility are available only to non-parents. The non-parent must be family member, including a sibling, aunt, uncle, cousin, stepparent, grandparent, or a person “recognized to be in a familial relationship with a child.” If the non-parent isn’t a family member, he or she must be someone with a close and substantial relationship with the child, meaning there is a significant bond between them. Without any formal agreement or a court order awarding Custodial Responsibility, no other person has any rights to visit or communicate with a child while a parent is deployed. Three Types of Custodial Responsibility • Caretaking Authority A court may grant Caretaking Authority to a non-parent only if it is in the child’s best interest to do so. A deploying parent who nominates someone to have Caretaking Authority is asking the court to let that person exercise the right to live with a child and care for that child on a day-to-day basis. It is roughly equal to physical custody and it includes the legal right to visitation, possession of a child for lack of a better word. It also includes the ability to make day-to-day decisions while the child is with that person, including the authority to designate another person to have limited contact with a child. For example, an aunt given Caretaking Authority may legally consent for the child to spend Saturday afternoon with grandparents during her weekend of visitation. Unless the parents agree, Caretaking Authority can’t give the non-parent more time than the deploying parent has in any existing custody order, or more than “the amount...
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What Happens to Child Support When a Special Needs Child Reaches 18? By Amy A. Edwards Before 1979, North Carolina parents had a legal obligation to support their child if he or she was mentally or physically incapable of self-support upon reaching age 18, the age of majority. There was considerable debate about whether to keep parents’ responsibility in place or end support at age 18. Now, although there aren’t any specific child support laws for children who have special needs, support can be extended to a maximum age of 20 in certain circumstances. Support can’t be ordered past age 20 unless the parent signs a contract saying so. Child Support Law In North Carolina, unless there’s a contract that says otherwise, child support continues after age 18 if “the child is still in primary or secondary school when the child reaches age 18.” In that event, support continues until “the child graduates. . . ceases to attend school on a regular basis, fails to make satisfactory academic progress towards graduation, or reaches age 20, whichever comes first.” NC Gen. Stat. §50-13.4. Non-Traditional Progress In 2001, forty years after repealing the statute that required parents to support their child if he or she was incapable of self-support, our Court of Appeals made a small step towards helping special needs children when it clarified that special needs children aren’t penalized just because they are not in a traditional high school. John Hendricks had Down Syndrome and attended a special program in a high school that taught “vocabulary and activities of daily living such as how to count money.” When he reached the age of 18, his mom asked the court to end her child support obligation because he wasn’t making satisfactory academic progress towards graduation. He wouldn’t receive a traditional high school diploma. But John’s teacher and school counselor testified that “John’s attendance at school is in his best interests, [and] that he would continue to benefit in the future from the curriculum.” The Court of Appeals held that John was making satisfactory academic progress toward a non-traditional graduation, and it was equivalent to a traditional graduation. Child support would remain in place up to age 20 so long as John made progress in his program. The Court wrote: If John were not mentally disabled but instead was enrolled in a traditional high school curriculum, it is clear support would...
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