Legal Question in Family Law in Louisiana
Cohabitation Ruling
I recently went through a court battle over relocating to another state, I moved from LA. I have one 10 year old son. I actually won the battle to move. My problem is that the judge imposed what I to believe unreasonable visitation. I have appealed the decision. The judge also imposed a ''no overnight visitation of the opposite sex rule on both of us'' This was not a part of our original divorce/custody settlement and neither of us asked for this. I had been living with someone for the previous 2 years in LA, without a protest from the father. There is no claim of a bad environment for my child or anything. The judge actually said in court ''I don't care if he's the greatest guy in the world'' This really has little effect on my ex (by the way the divorce was 8 years ago). When he has visitation the child stays at his grandmother's house. But, I have an established home with this person. Is this ruling even legal when no one asked for it, just the judge's personal opinion. What law could he have based this on? Do you know of any similar cases?results?appeals?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Cohabitation Ruling
Dear LawGuru Friend,
That's a hard one. As a lawyer with almost 40 years' experience, I really do not know a good answer. If you get along pretty well with the x-husband, you might ask him to sign a statement that he has no objection and will not offer any objection in court to your living in a state of co-habitation. I do not know what state you are in, but it could be very well that you are indeed married, according to the "Common Law". If you live in Texas, I am sure you are indeed married. Of course, you could take the case back to court and state that since you x-husband has no objection to your relationship with this man, that the court should not; and for the court to impose such a condition in absence of any objection by the father of the child amounts to the judge's imposing his religious beliefs on you, and that he should not do so; and if you pushed this to the extreme, you'd probably win. Judges do have lots of power, but whether they have that much, to just impose their personal beliefs on the parties appearing before them, I am not so sure.
There is more to it all than this, but this is something to think about.
Sincerely,
Hardy Parkerson, Attorney
Lake Charles, LA
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