Legal Question in Family Law in Virginia
Enforcing visitation
Ex has custody of our 13 y/o son. My visitation is E/O weekend 5pm Fri to 5pm Sun. On 7/7/, son asked me to skip visitation this weekend & make it up later. I initially agreed. Then I realized not to make arrangements w/ him w/o speaking to his mom. (We just left court about 2 months ago. She tried to revoke all my visitation. She lost. Visitation remained.) On 7/8/, I called my son & told him I cant make arrangements with him b/c I had no knowledge that his mom would comply w/ the change; I told him I need to speak to her. The mom refuses to speak to me at all. To avoid confusion, I sent a letter on Tues, 7/10/07 advising the mom that she needs to put her request to change my visitation in writing & that I would get back to her, and that if she can't communicate w/ me about changing visitation, then I can't honor the change in visitation that I expect the child 7/13 @5pm. I feel I need to speak to her & have written proof b/c I've been to court so much w/ her & she hasn't been truthful in the past.
After this, she did not release son on Fri & did not call me. Deputy said I could contact the magistrate & press charges & do a show cause in court. Can I do both? What about criminal show cause & civil show cause?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Enforcing visitation
A request for a Show Cause action would appear premature here as the mother may have reasonably believed that you were canceling the visitation which your son had requested be cancelled.
And the deputy has got it wrong with respect to "pressing charges" with the magistrate. This is an entirely civil matter and any appropriate request for a Rule to Show Cause would be handled through the clerk of court and not the local magistrate who primarily handles criminal matters.
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