Legal Question in Family Law in California

Visitation and child support are two separate things. He is still considered to be in arrears on his child support, regardless of the visitation issue. He can fight for joint custody, but it doesn't mean he will get it. Is this history of domestic violence documented? Has he been before the court on domestic violence charges? If you really do feel he poses a danger to your daughter, then I would ask for supervised visitation, but you have undercut your position by not treating the situation seriously and calling the police and having them involved when your daughter felt threatened in 2008.

He has violated the court order if he has not paid child support for the past two years in accordance with the order. Whether you will be considered to have violated his visitation rights is questionable. You say the order says the daughter had the option of not seeing him. Even without that, visitation can be difficult as children get older if they gravitate toward one parent. One parent often accuses the other of keeping the child away, when the reality often it is just a matter of the child simply being tired of being in the middle of two bickering parents and worried about keeping everyone happy. Especially in teen years, life has enough drama.

Ms. Beers answer is correct, but just to clarify: Support is entirely separate from visitation. The other parent can kidnap the child and run off to Iran, and the support obligation continues. As for the child not wanting to visit her father, and your agreement, you got suckered a bit by the attorney father. No court is going to enforce a custody agreement that allows the child to pick and chose when they visit. If a child was mature enough to make those decisions for themselves, there would be no custody proceedings and orders. As a child gets older, the child's wishes are taken more into account, but the law is clear that the court must independently determine what is in the best interests of the minor child as far as custody and visitation. I agree that with the order you have, you are not in contempt for not making her visit him, but given the unenforceable nature of the order, he is entitled to go to court and get a new one. As for what that order will be and whether he will get joint custody, there is no way to even venture a guess here. It will turn on the complete package of evidence that is before the court, and to a large extent what Family Court Services reports after your "mediation."