Legal Question in Family Law in California
Is boyfriends visitation in the best interest of children?
Long story short, n/c mom constantly violated no-contact order of her boyfriend around the minors. her visitation diminished to daytime, then to supervised. prior to the supervised, minors counsel appointed(first time in 2 1/2 years.) he feels , even though not married to boyfriend, relationship will most likely continue. boys counsel needs to get mom focused back to 5 and 7 yr. old children. boyfriend completed his 52 week d.v. class and is weaned into the last half of the supervised visits. mom gets her overnights back, everyother weekend. boyfriend has bi-polar and sudden impulse disorder, minors counsel states he has no authority to see if he is taking his med. and is still seeing the doctor for such. this alarms me. it appears to me that although we all agreed in court to take a psyc. eval.(boyfriend as well) the final say is my dicision, minors counsel says he can retract this if i want to. my question, how do i know that this person will be safe with the minors because of completeing the d.v. class? will the psyc. eval check with his medication doctor? your input please?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Is boyfriends visitation in the best interest of children?
You are in a very difficult situation. There is no way to be absolutely sure that the children are safe. Your children's attorney has a strong say, but not an absolute say. If the psych eval has been ordered, it would be best to go through the evaluation process, however, there might be substantial costs. I hope that the children are getting counseling so that they have a place to air their concerns. That may be the best moniter of what happens in the mom's home and takes some responsibility off you to being their sounding board. The kids undoubtedly love their mother and may feel that they are betraying her by telling you of the problems in her home. That is only one of an endless number of possibilities and problems in your situation. You have a complex and ever changing situation, make sure that you have competent legal counsel. Good Luck, Pat McCrary