Legal Question in Family Law in Massachusetts

Re: Child's rights

There is no specific age at which a Court will ignore visitation orders. In many cases, the Court discovers that the child has been influenced by the custodial parent, and if that is what is going on, any missed visits could result in a contempt action against the parent who has custody.

If the custodial parent thinks the order of visitation is not in the best interest of the child, then the proper procedure is to get the visitation order modified. If you do that on your own, you may discover that the Court is upset with you, and you could lose custody. I would never recommend that a person go to Court where visitation or custody is involved, without an attorney. An attorney can often say things that do not anger a Judge, whereas if the parent says the same thing, the Judge gets angry, and can take custody away from the "offending" parent.