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Often the most emotional and just plain difficult area to handle in family law is custody and parenting time.  There are so many variables and in most cases both parents want to spend as much time with the children as possible.  In some cases, there are certain family members or relatives of the other parent that you do not want around the children or to have any communication with the children.  This blog very generally addresses the issue of whether you are able to get an order that stops one or more of the other parent's relatives from being in contact with the children or otherwise communicating with the children.  If you have specific questions about your situation, please contact us to schedule a consultation by clicking on this link or by calling us at (248) 608-4123.

Can I Stop A Family Member of the Other Parent From Having Contact or Communicating With Our Child?

To answer this question one must first address parenting time and how that has an effect on this issue.  Parenting time is the schedule that determines which parent the children will be with on any given day and time, including holidays.  Generally speaking, during your parenting time, you have the right to have your family, relatives and friends have contact with the children, play with the children, call the children on the telephone or otherwise interact with the children in any appropriate manner.  The same is true for the other parent during their parenting time.  Judges typically do not like to enter orders that restrict a child from visiting with either parent's family members or relatives. 

However, when it is your parenting time, you generally have no duty to allow communication or contact with the family members or relatives of the other parent.    In addition, if the other parent is contacting the children so often by calling or texting during your parenting time that it is disruptive to your parenting time or otherwise inappropriate, you can get an order from the judge that the other parent is only to have limited communication at certain times and for a designated duration during your parenting time.  On the other hand, you can allow them to communicate or have contact with the children during your parenting time if you want to.

Now, this can change if there is some particular issue with the family member or relative in particular, and this extends to new romantic partners, friends and generally anyone either parent may bring around the child.  First, if the person has a criminal record (particularly anything concerning children), a history of violence, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, serious mental health issues or other similar type problems, then in most cases you can probably get an order from the judge that this person is not to be present around the child during parenting time and to otherwise not have any contact or communication with the child.  The same would apply to any person that has caused harm to the child in the past or somehow acted inappropriately around the child or showed very poor decision making in the presence of the child.  

Finally, most judgments of divorce contain language in them that neither parent is allowed to disparage or otherwise show disrespect for the other parent during their parenting time or allow other people disparage or otherwise show disrespect for the other parent during their parenting time.  If you discover and can prove that this is going on, that would also be the basis for you to file a motion and seek an order from the judge that the person making the disparaging remarks or disrespect not have any contact or communication with the child.  This becomes a much more difficult matter if it is the other parent that is doing the disparaging and showing the disrespect because of the rights that the child has to be with each parent, but it is an unfortunately common and serious problem. So if you can prove that the other parent is continually acting in an inappropriate nature of this sort, judge's will issue orders limiting and even suspending that parent's time with the child.  It just may take some time to get the judge to grasp the seriousness of the situation.

If you have any questions about your own situation, please do not hesitate to schedule a consultation by clicking on this link or by calling (248) 608-4123.