Legal Question in Family Law in Minnesota

Re: scheduling of summer vacation

Thank you for your question regarding your summer vacation.

As a general rule, the court will allow a few days for the mail to arrive, and if he is supposed to provide a schedule by April 1st, would very likely consider his notice timely if it was received this week.

More than that, the court generally prefers the parties act reasonably with each other when scheduling summer vacations, etc., and many judges will not rigorously enforce that deadline. I know it may seem like the court is being lax in the enforcement of a court order, but remember that the court's first priority in any dissolution case is to protect the best interests of the children. Many judges will resist the mechanic enforcement of such notice provisions, since it can suggest the real dispute is not over visitation but over boundaries between the parties. Further, the purpose of such notice provisions is generally to prevent the parties from scheduling summer vacation at the same time -- the purpose is not to prevent the other party from having extended vacation time if he misses a deadline. He merely forfeits his opportunity to have priority in the scheduling of summer vacation.

I would suggest you consider the following:

1. Send him a regular letter or email later this week (certified mail is unncessary) that sets forth your summer vacation schedule, and make no reference to whether he missed the deadline or not. There is no point in telling him he missed the deadline, other than to be confrontational. Since you have not received notice, you can take any two weeks you like, although you undoubtedly have a holiday schedule that controls dates like July 4, and that will take priority at those times. It's then up to him to schedule his time around you.

2. Call him on the phone and inquire when he wants his summer vacation, and if he can't come up with a proposed schedule, make your own plans and follow up with a letter. This presumes some level of communication between you, of course. If there is a later a dispute, you would want the court to know you have taken the "moral high ground" on the issue and tried to amicably resolve the issue.

Good luck. If you have further questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me. My contact information is below, and in my "profile".