IAAL - A Word in your ear..

[Snoopy]

I have two questions which I hope you can help me with.

My visitation agreement states that my control freak ex gets Christmas Eve/Day and New Years Day. It does not state that he gets the time in-between. The agreement does have the word 'liberal' in it though. He is saying that the 'intent' of the agreement was to have the child over the whole holiday period. So my question is, how much weight does the 'intent' have in an agreement such as this. If I decide to hold him to the letter of the court order, how would a judge view this if he decides to take it to court?

Please do not get the wrong impression, I am not trying to deny visitation, I want to know the legal facts to counter his endless demands and threats if I need to.


Second, he is requesting my daughter be pulled out of school for 1 week in September so she can attend his brothers wedding. She starts grade 1 this August and I have refused to pull her out of school for this week. If he decides to petition the court, is there a judge out there that would pull a 6 year old child out of her education so she can have visitation with him and attend the wedding ?


State is VA.

Thanks!

 

[I AM ALWAYS LIABLE]

I have two questions which I hope you can help me with.

My visitation agreement states that my control freak ex gets Christmas Eve/Day and New Years Day. It does not state that he gets the time in-between. The agreement does have the word 'liberal' in it though. He is saying that the 'intent' of the agreement was to have the child over the whole holiday period. So my question is, how much weight does the 'intent' have in an agreement such as this. If I decide to hold him to the letter of the court order, how would a judge view this if he decides to take it to court?

Please do not get the wrong impression, I am not trying to deny visitation, I want to know the legal facts to counter his endless demands and threats if I need to.


MY ANSWER :

Whomever wrote this visitation agreement should be shot.

If you two couldn't get along while you were together, what makes anyone think that either one of you can agree to the meaning of "liberal visitation".

I'm sorry, I can't help you when the agreement is so vague and ambiguous. You may need to go to court to have "absolute" dates and times put into the order. I would NEVER have drawn up such an agreement for a client, because it's - - for lack of a better word - - stupid.


Second, he is requesting my daughter be pulled out of school for 1 week in September so she can attend his brothers wedding. She starts grade 1 this August and I have refused to pull her out of school for this week. If he decides to petition the court, is there a judge out there that would pull a 6 year old child out of her education so she can have visitation with him and attend the wedding ?


MY ANSWER : At this point in your child's life, missing a few "stories" and "finger painting" is not going to make or break your child's acceptance into Stanford or Yale. Let him have his child. He's entitled to have his child, especially for this occassion.

Good luck to you.

IAAL


State is VA.

Thanks!

 

[Snoopy]

Well, yes, I was young and foolish then and did not know any better. I know the week out of school will not hurt her education, but it is the endless way he demands and threatens me that makes it hard to agree to anything. Each time I agree, he takes it as him 'winning' and the demands and threats continue to get worse. I would not accept being spoken to like this by anyone, yet I am supposed to accept it from him? ... He never asks me, he tells me what is going to happen and I have a hard time accepting that considering we are divorced!

Thanks anyway..