Legal Question in Family Law in Oregon

Re: Child support/ parenting time

QUESTION:

If i believe it is not in the best interest of my son to be in his fathers care, temporarily, due to his fathers irrational behavior, being belligerent, telling me to take his name off the birth certificate and his lack of paying child support and medical insurance, do i legally have to obey the current court order for parenting time or can i refuse parenting time until the situation is dealt with in a court of law?

ANSWER:

YES, even if you believe it is not in the best interest of my your to be in his fathers care, temporarily, due to his father's irrational behavior, being belligerent, telling you to take his name off the birth certificate and his lack of paying child support and medical insurance, you nonetheless are legally required to obey the current court order for parenting time. Taking matters into your own hands and unilaterally deciding to disregard and disobey a valid, lawful, existing court order "until the situation is dealt with in a court of law" is total nonsense. After all, if you can do that, why bother to even go to court at all? Your approach renders court orders as being totally meaningless unless you decide you like the order and will comply. That is NOT how the law works.

What you are describing is not a "life or death" emergency situation that would justify your disobeying the existing court order. So if you take matters into you own hands at this point and refuse to comply with the existing court order, you may very well find yourself on the receiving end of a contempt of court charge. This is NOT something you should be doing.