What Can I Do When Our Parenting Plan is Violated?Parenting Plans are legally binding. Where child custody is concerned, emotional disputes often arise. One of the parties may not agree with the terms of the Parenting Plan, and they may try to take the law into their own hands. You have legal remedies available to you if your former spouse has violated the parenting agreement by:

  • Taking your child without informing you. If your child’s other parent picks them up from school, or from a relative’s home and takes them away without informing you of where they are going or when they will return, this can be treated as custodial interference. This is a Class E felony in Tennessee if the child is not returned. If the child is taken across state lines or out of the U.S., the FBI may get involved in the investigation.
  • Purposely driving a wedge between you and your child. Just because you and your spouse cannot get along, does not mean either of you should try to “sway” the child towards your side. Parental alienation is not only destructive, but it may have outside ramifications you did not expect. If you believe that your ex is trying to sabotage your relationship with your child, come see us.
  • Showing up and coming back whenever they feel. If your child’s other parent is supposed to take them for the weekend, but they never show up on Sunday evening and they cannot be reached by phone, you may begin to panic about the whereabouts of your child. Likewise, if your ex does not come during appointed times, or tries to make a new schedule for residential time without requesting a change through the courts, your former spouse is in violation of the Parenting Plan.

What you can do if your ex violates the Parenting Plan

If you begin to see a pattern in the other parent’s behavior of keeping the child later than you agreed to, taking them places without informing you, or showing up when it is not their scheduled time and demanding that you allow the child to go with them, you may want to ask your Nashville family law attorney to send them a letter informing them that they must abide by the custody agreement and reminding them of the penalties for violating the court order. If the letter from your attorney does not motivate them to change their behavior, you may file a petition for contempt, and request that the other parent pay your court costs and attorney fees for filing the motion.

If you are facing a custody challenge, you may have many questions that an experienced Nashville divorce attorney can answer for you. Please contact the knowledgeable legal team at Miller Upshaw Family Law, PLLC to reserve an in-person or video consultation time today.

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