Legal Question in Family Law in Texas
My daughter is 7 years old, her father lives a little over a hundred miles away, which our custody papers say that if he lives that far away he is supposed to get her once a month. He does not attempt to see her once a month though. He will call every 3-4 months and sometimes longer. In a year he has seen her a total of 8 days. She is finally at the age where she understands that he does not see her like he should. So whenever he does call and say he wants to see her she says ok but she does not want to spend the night with him. Last time she spent the night I had to go and pick her up early becasue she cried and cried becasue she did not want to be there anymore, I document any and all conversations that I have with him as well as any times that he has came and got her. Not only does he not attempt to see her on a regular basis but he doesnt call her, or come to her games. I do not want to force her to stay the night. She gets upset thinking about having to go stay with him. What kind of legal trouble could I get in if he chooses to take me to court for not taking her to see him? (by her choice of course). She wants to see him, just not stay the entire weekend or overnight. Also, if I legally can get into some trouble for this, could I have the potential to have a good case against him and maybe even win in a court room with all the information that I have documented from the past 2 years, and from my daughter saying she doesnt want to go.
1 Answer from Attorneys
I assume that there are court orders in place.
You are ordered to follow the Judge's orders. If you read the orders, it sets out the consequences if you do not follow the orders. There are usually monetary fines and/or jail time consequences that can be imposed by the judge if you do not follow the judges orders.
If you do not want to follow the orders set out by the judge then you need to go back to court and ask the judge to modify the judge's orders.
The burden is on you as to why the judge should modify the current orders.
It's not what you wanted to hear but that is the law in Texas in a nutshell.
If you don't follow the current court orders, then your ex can file contempt on you.
You will have to hire an attorney to fight the contempt charges against you. Based on his behavior you can argue that you should not be fined or jailed. You might be able to win the contempt charges, but I cannot guarantee it - no attorney can guarantee it.
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