Legal Question in Family Law in Maryland

Re: Fathers Visitation

Believe it or not your case is not as easy as it may seem. You say that you signed papers but there is not a court order. Are you sure?

If you signed a custody paper he could have petitioned the court to create an order consistent with the agreement, even without your knowledge.

As a mother I completely understand your concern and reluctance to have this child thrown off a sleeping schedule. Unfortunately not all courts are as sympathetic! What may help your case is to have a psychologist testify that the child is being harmed because the father is keeping the child up by his night-owl behavior! Or perhaps you can have witnesses testify as to his home environment during visits (are friends coming over late at night? is he doing housework late at night waking the child? is he keeping the child up until he/she goes into meltdown from being overstimulation?)

You can petition the court to modify the agreement (if it was made into a agreement) to restrict over-night visits but it is not an easy battle! You will need to show that the visits are harming the child so you need to gather evidence (is she unusually fussy or difficult to deal with, does she become ill due to lack of sleep, is she up frequently at night following visits?).

If the papers you signed have not been made into a court order then I would petition the court for a custody order and argue your case from that point. Of course, the father will argue in that case that you have signed an agreement but you could still put on evidence showing that his night-owl behavior is harming the child.

Good luck! Please call my Md office at 301-652-0663 or VA office at 703-968-3974 if you have any questions.