61% of American couples divorcing for the first time have children under the age of 18. Those divorces always end with some order of custody or time sharing between the parents and the kids.
Sometimes if your ex is not following the schedule, you’re probably pretty cool with that. If you think your ex is a real slouch, a bad influence on the kids, they’re not coming around and seeing the kids, maybe you don’t want to rock that boat because you think that’s best for the kids. Other times, you want that other parent to share in the responsibilities of raising the kids, take them when you’re supposed to have them because it allows you to do things that you need to do. It also allows the other parent to experience the expense and the time involved in rearing the children. You may be the one who is being deprived of your court ordered time to have with the kids.
Regardless, if you are looking to enforce the terms of a court ordered parenting schedule or custody arrangement, in order to do that, you would need to file in the action that the divorce or the order came from, a motion to enforce that order or a motion for contempt for failure to comply with the terms of that order. In your motion, what you should do is outline the existence and the terms of the order that is in place. This order from this date establishes that the parenting schedule and time is supposed to be this way. You should then proceed in outlining how your ex-spouse is not complying, not following those terms specifically and in detail. You should also include in your motion what it is you want the judge to do about it. That’s what we call a prayer for relief. You want that state in the motion to enforce or the motion for contempt, what should happen or what should you order to be done here, judge.
The procedures to move that forward and ultimately get a ruling are a little complicated, but that is the first step, is identifying the order, the terms of the order, the actions that are violation of the order, reducing those to writing in a motion, and filing in your court case that the original order came from. If you decide to hire an attorney to assist you in this matter, many times you can seek to get the attorney fees that you have to spend to get an attorney to enforce this type of order. You can get those attorney fees awarded back to you by the court.