Legal Question in Family Law in California

Family Court is a "court of equity," meaning fairness. There are few hard and fast rules that the courts cannot bend to achieve substantial fairness and reasonableness. Therefore, the courts expect the parties to also be flexible and fair and only bring genuinely unresolveable disputes and serious abuses into court (not that it works out that way with all the petty squabbling people do in Family Court). So when it comes to picky details of orders, the court is going to expect, and will enforce, REASONABLE compliance with the order. So if dad takes the kids to visit his parents and it's getting late and he doesn't want to have to leave to drive the kids to the designated spot, and it's only 5 min. out of mom's way, and it's once in a while, the court will expect mom to reasonably coooperate. If dad meets a new woman who lives an hour and a half away, and he and the kids start spending most weekends there, can he make mom drive there every weekend to get the kids? Not unless he can persuade the court to modify the order to say that.