Legal Question in Family Law in Maryland

Re: Need a translation of ''legal-ese''

While it is impossible to make a definitive determination of exactly what legal language means without reviewing the entire agreement, based upon what you have written, it appears that the second sentence merely means that the fact that one party does not complain about or make an issue about the other party breaching the agreement, that does not mean that future breaches are automatically okay and forgiven.

I hope this is helpful.

Ranji Garrett

301-296-4474

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Re: Need a translation of ''legal-ese''

The first part of the section you have quoted means that if you and the father of your child agree to change the terms of the written agreement the change must be written in a new formal agreement, signed and notarized, before it is enforceable. A verbal agreement to alter the visitation schedule, for instance, will not be enforceable by a court. The second part means that if one of you fails to perform in accordance with the terms of the written agreement and the other party doesn't object, the other party is not giving up the right to object to further failures to follow the terms of the agreement. For example, if you have custody and the father is required to return the child by 8:00 p.m. on Sunday after his visitation, and he returns the child on Monday at noon instead, and you let it slide, you are not giving up to file an action in the court later for breach of the agreement (or for contempt of court of the agreement has been incorporated into a judgment of the court) if he continues to return the child late. If his breach of the agreement is a failure to take the child at all for visitation, which frequently happens, it is actually very difficult to require an uninterested parent to exercise his right to visitation. In that case your recourse, if you want to go to court about it, could be to ask the court to terminate his visitation rights altogether so that you don't have a child waiting by the door with the bags packed for a parent who doesn't show up.