Legal Question in Family Law in Indiana

Re: Sole Custody and Visitation Difficulties

Your case is easier to analyze once the relationships between persons are plainly described. First, as a result of the adoption, your ex and your biological son are parent/child in the eyes of the law, not step-parent/step-child. Similarly, once you adopted your ex�s daughters, they ceased being your stepdaughters, and became your daughters. Your son and your daughters are not step-siblings, they are siblings.

Section 607 of the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act, 750 ILCS 5/607 provides that �A parent not granted custody of the child is entitled to reasonable visitation rights unless the court finds, after a hearing, that visitation would endanger seriously the child's physical, mental, moral or emotional health.� This includes you. You are entitled to visitation with your daughters. You may choose not to obtain or exercise visitation with them, and that is your choice, but the law grants you visitation.

With regard to any particular medical or other needs of your son while he is visiting his dad and sisters, you should try to work it out with your ex. If your ex won�t cooperate, you can have your son�s particular requirements spelled out in a court order regarding visitation. See a lawyer about this.

The problem is that, if your push your ex, he might decline to exercise visitation with his son at all [the law does not mandate that visitation be exercised] rather than do what�s needed, or he might simply refuse to do what is required, and then visitation will be denied by the court on the ground that it �would endanger seriously the child's physical, mental, moral or emotional health.� Either way, a lack of visitation cheats your son out of visitation with his sisters. There IS an answer to that:

Section 607 also states: � The court may grant reasonable visitation privileges to a . . . sibling of any minor child upon petition to the court . . . on behalf of the sibling, . . . if the court determines that it is in the best interests and welfare of the child, and may issue any necessary orders to enforce such visitation privileges.� Accordingly, your son has the right to petition for visitation with his sisters. [Note, this provision of the statute has certain infirmities under Illinois case law, but may nonetheless provide a foundation for judicial relief.] If your ex refuses to exercise his visitation with his son, the son could use this statutory provision to see his sisters anyway. A lawyer can help your explore this option if it comes to that.

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