You Have Questions… Modification of Visitation | Feinberg & Waller, APC, Video Transcript

A lot of people who get a divorce believe once the custody orders are in place, no matter how young the child, that’s what it has to be for the rest of their minority, until they turn 18, but that’s not the case. Child custody, timeshare, access, visitation, those are concepts that are subject to modification as circumstances develop and as circumstances require. If you get a divorce when your child is an infant, the timeshare plan for an infant is completely different than the timeshare plan for a kid who is ten or twelve years old. And a child who is ten or twelve years old may be appropriate to have one kind of visitation plan that is completely inappropriate for a child who is sixteen years old. So the way you change it is you ask the other parent, “Will you work with me so that we can come up with a more workable plan for our kids so that I can see them a lot, you can see them a lot, and their best interests are protected?” If they say no, you can hire a family law attorney or, if you can’t afford an attorney, you can go to the self-help center at the court and prepare the paperwork so that you can get in front of a judge, explain the situation to the judge, and ask for a change in the time schedule.