Is our visitation order still valid?

[dadtothree]

Hello! My ex girlfriend and I have an 8 year old son. We have court documents for custody and visitation that are 8 years old. The papers only spelled out visitation for our son's first year and we planned on revising them when he turned one. The papers specifically say, "9/2/00(his birthdate)- 12/1/00" and lists that schedule, "12/2/00-3/1/01" and lists that schedule and finally, "3/2/01-9/1/01" and lists that schedule. It mentions nothing beyond that first year. I then made the terrible decision of not being involved in my son's life at all for 4 years. I have been back in his life, consistently, for 3 years now. He has done wonderfully and my ex has been fairly cooperative. We're having a difficult time agreeing to a permanent visitation schedule now that the transition period is over and everything has gone well.

My question is: Since the original court-ordered visitation schedule was never modified, is the most recent schedule (what is listed for "3/2/01-9/1/01") still in effect and enforceable?

I asked an attorney who said that it was not- that it only covered through 9/1/01 and that now there is no court-ordered visitation schedule. My ex says that because that is the only paperwork on file with the courts and was never modified, the visitation schedule is still in effect and can be legally enforced. I called the Circuit Court's office, where the papers are filed, and they said that they could not "interpret the court order". Does anyone have any idea how this works? Thanks for your help!

 

[WhirledPeas]

You can likely go to court to request a temporary order (parenting schedule) while this is being sorted out, if you feel your ex is unreasonably withholding parenting time from you.

If you and your ex have a different interpretation on the old order and cannot agree, mediation, arbitration and/or court are the next steps. Appealing to your ex with an estimate of the likely cost of these three steps might pursuade her to sit down and try again to work something out.

Since you've been involved for three years, its very unlikely that a judge would order the same parenting schedule as was ordered for an infant. Unless circumstances exist that you haven't mentioned, you'll likely get whatever a "normal" parenting schedule is for your area except if you can prove compelling reasons for deviating from it.

I know you probably feel bad for the four year gap, but it has no real bearing on what a judge might order for a parenting schedule going forward between two parents active in their child's life.