If you need advice about your rights and responsibilities concerning your right to see your children, including grounds for modifying or enforcing the terms of a court-approved parenting time or visitation plan, contact Indianapolis family law attorney Tony Zirkle at any of our four Indiana locations.
In divorce cases, child visitation questions are decided under the Indiana Parenting Time Guidelines, which address the different considerations that apply in cases involving long distances between each parent's home, infants or toddlers, adolescents, or situations of hostility between the parents. In all cases, each parent must take care that he or she is not undermining the child's relationship with the other parent, or using the child to gather information about the other parent.
Generally speaking, for children older than four or five years old, the noncustodial parent will have overnight visits with the child on alternate weekends and holidays and half the child's summer vacation from school. More or less contact can be incorporated into the parenting plan by agreement between the parents or court order, and can also be worked out between the parents as time goes on.
Disputes concerning the terms of an original parenting plan will usually be referred to mediation before the court will hear and resolve it. Similarly, each parent has the right to apply to court to enforce the terms of a parenting plan, but the court will usually want to see some indication that the parents made efforts to work the problems out themselves. Under some circumstances, interference with a parent's visitation rights is a criminal offense in Indiana.
An important practical aspect of the parenting plan is its effect on the noncustodial parent's child support obligations. The amount of payments determined under Indiana Child Support Guidelines will reflect a reduction for the number of overnight visits each year the noncustodial parent has with the children.
Unmarried parents have the same rights and responsibilities concerning visitation of their children, but only after the father's paternity has been established and the parents--or either parent--have applied for court approval of a parenting plan. For an unmarried father, credit for overnight visits under a parenting plan will usually be the only way to reduce his child support payments from 100 percent of the Indiana guidelines figure.
The Law Offices of Tony Zirkle are located throughout Indiana, and we are familiar with the different ways courts in different counties apply the guidelines concerning both parenting time and child support. To get the benefit of our experience with the local conditions where you live, contact an experienced child visitation lawyer at one of our offices in Indianapolis, South Bend, Fort Wayne, and Crown Point.
