Legal Question in Family Law in Washington
My Brother-in-Law has two children with my sister (his current wife) and two with his ex-wife. He was scheduled to have his two children from the first marraige over the spring break from school. But as he is in the Navy, he will be on a ship deployment. Since he will be gone, the first wife claims that the children dont need to go to their fathers house (also my sisters house). Since there are two siblings from the second marraige, my sister believes they still have custody rights over the spring break regardless of if the childrens dad is present or not. Who is correct?
1 Answer from Attorneys
You bring up a situation that comes up often. In cases where I have someone like your brother-in-law who we know in advance will not be there for certain visits and where the children have half-siblings, I try to address this in the Parenting Plan to make a specific provision to allow for the visits to occur regardless of the father's presence, given that they are as much for the siblings to get time together as they are for the father to exercise visitation with the children.
That said, assuming your brother-in-law's Parenting Plan is silent on what happens in this situation, I think the ex-wife is correct that the children do not need to go over to visit. If your brother-in-law wants to change this, he needs to bring an action to modify the parenting plan to address this situation.
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