Providing Divorce Mediation Services Throughout California
Providing Divorce Mediation Services Throughout California
If you have visitation rights, your time with your child is limited. It’s important that you maximize the time you have with your child to develop deeper bonds that benefit your child.
However, you may also be concerned that you are going to receive less time if the custodial parent changes their mind.
If that’s a concern you have, it’s important to know how you can lose the visitation you do have. Are you looking for a mediator to help you co-parent or schedule your visitation rights? Don’t wait, reach out to Dina Haddad today and get your free consultation today.
Visitation rights are as described on the Superior Court of California’s website:
“The parent who does not have the children more than half of the time is entitled to visitation with the children. In order to avoid conflicts and eliminate confusion, a specific visitation plan can be developed.”
A father has the right to see his child. Family law professionals, including judicial officers and attorneys, would agree that in most situations keeping communication between both parents is in the child(ren)s best interest.
If a parent is harming the child, such as abuse, neglect or drug use, the parent may lose visitation rights, whether fathers or mothers.
Be aware of how you, as a father, can lose custody or your visitation rights. Knowledge is key. We have listed several of these below.
However, don’t focus on this aspect of your visitation. Instead, focus on how to maximize the time you do have with your child so that you develop deep healthy bonds.
Here is a list of 12 grounds from the Child Welfare Information Gateway as to reasons a parent may not receive custody, with our added explanation.
Even if a parent is subject to one or more on this list, the courts can also choose other options like monitored visitation, rehabilitation therapies, and other strategies, when there is a possibility for the child-parent relationship to exist in a healthy and safe way:
You don’t have an address so that you can be reached. This has two implications.
The parent is suffering from a mental disability that renders him or her incapable of utilizing those services.
It’s not that they want to take custody right away if you have any mental illness on your record. It’s only if:
The child or a sibling of the child had been removed from the custody of his or her parent as a result of an adjudication of dependency due to physical or sexual abuse, the child had been returned to the custody of the parent, and the child is being removed again due to additional physical or sexual abuse.”
This one is pretty self-explanatory, if a parent continues to behave this way putting their child in danger, the custodial parent will be able to prevent that parent from having any visitation time.
The parent has caused the death of another child through abuse or neglect.
In such a serious situation, the court may not award any visitation time to that parent. If the parent has been rehabilitated, there is the possibility of other options like monitored visitation.
The child was brought within the jurisdiction of the court under Welfare and Institutions Code § 300(e) because of the parent’s conduct.”
This refers to a legal section in which a young child is taken from a parent because of severe abuse.
The parent has inflicted severe sexual abuse or severe physical harm to the child, a sibling, or a half-sibling.
The parent of the child willfully abandoned the child, and the court finds that the abandonment itself constituted a serious danger to the child.
The parent or other parent having custody of an infant voluntarily surrendered physical custody of the child to a safe-surrender site pursuant to § 1255.7 of the Health and Safety Code.”
If you take your child to a designated safe-surrender site during your visitation time, the court has to follow the legal process to ensure the child’s safety.
The court ordered termination of reunification services for any siblings or half-siblings of the child because the parent failed to reunify with the sibling or half-sibling after the sibling or half-sibling had been removed from that parent, and this parent has not subsequently made a reasonable effort to treat the problems that led to removal of the sibling or half-sibling from that parent.
The parental rights of a parent over any sibling or half-sibling of the child had been permanently severed, and the parent has not subsequently made a reasonable effort to treat the problems that led to removal of the sibling or half-sibling of that child from the parent.
The parent of the child has been convicted of a violent felony.
The parent of the child has advised the court that he or she is not interested in receiving family reunification services or having the child returned to or placed in his or her custody.
The custodial parent can file a request to terminate the parent’s visitation rights. If the parents already have a family law case, this request will be within that matter.
If the parents do not, the parent will first file a paternity or divorce action. Then, the parent can file a request for order for child custody.
The custodial parent will need to state their position and support it with facts, which could include emails, social media posts, and what they saw and heard.
Except for emergency situations, the matter will be in a hearing before the judge. For emergencies, it depends on the county’s rules as to the process.
At the hearing, the parties must have properly entered their pleadings and evidence. The judge should have these by the court deadlines.
In long-cause hearings, you may even call witnesses to testify and present reports or other evidence to which they are privy. The judge will consider all of the facts to determine whether the parent’s visitation should be terminated or not granted at all.
After your rights have been terminated, you can submit an appeal to make the judge reconsider your position.
You will have to file through the court system – and note that this will involve additional hearings. In the meantime beforehand you should take a look at why the judge took your rights in the first place and actively change that.
Example: if your home was deemed unfit/hazardous, you should put in the work to make your home safe.
Are you looking for a mediator to help you co-parent or schedule your visitation rights? Don’t wait, reach out to Dina Haddad today and get your free consultation today.
There are two very important ways to protect your visitation rights:
The best way for you to protect your visitation rights is through collaborative processes, like mediation.
By using mediation, you can have a third party present to help both you and your co-parent discuss the schedule. Your mediator can help you find solutions while they promote a collaborative setting.
Let’s say that you and your co-parent don’t get along at all. It turns into a fight every time and you are tired of having your co-parent find any reason to try and take your rights.
A mediator can help you in this case as well. The best service for this would be Families First Mediation. You can reach out and schedule a free consultation today. The teamworks to provide families with quality service and can help you with your child custody matter.
While the other way to keep your visitation rights is to be the best parent you can be to your child.
If you are struggling to parent, look for resources like parenting, child development or anger management courses, mental health therapy, and social groups for single parents.
Read More: How to Win Child Custody Mediation?
Remember, custody mediation is about your children. Consider what is best for your children and how you can achieve that and propose these plans in the mediation. If you keep your children the priority of the discussions, you will find it easier to reach agreement and that those agreements actually help you and the co-parent parent together.
A father can lose his visitation rights if the co-parent has evidence to prove to court that they are unfit to be taking care of the child(ren) during his time.
There are many reasons. If the father has actively put the child in any sort of danger, the courts can decide that he is unfit. They can revoke his visitation rights and the co-parent no longer has a legal obligation to allow him to see their child(ren).
Yes, if the parent does not oblige by the rules given to them when the visitation rights started, or puts the child at risk during their time, their rights can be taken away.
Families First Mediation is a pioneer in the field of divorce mediation. Our entire divorce mediation team takes great pride in being active trainers, divorce mediators and teachers of mediation in the greater California area. If you are considering a collaborative divorce, legal seperation or looking for a san jose divorce lawyer we have services that may be beneficial to you. Take advantage of our vast expertise and background in the field of divorce mediation and our genuine desire to help with your divorce mediation services.
