Proper Wording of Letter

[FLMom]

State of Florida. Joint legal with father as primary.

Court order finalized April 2005 stating rotating weeks during the summer, and school schedule states certain specific days of the week. Summer schedule non-specific.

At the end of school year prior to summer, mother and father held a phone conversation to plan the summer schedule. In the interest of dovetailing the schedule that step-daughter of father has with her father, mother wrote up a schedule taking this into account. Also taken into account were that each parent would have a ten day span of vacation time. All else split close to 50/50.

Mother submitted this schedule to father. Father replied with a different calendar that was the opposite of what had been discussed during the phone conversation. Daughter age 16 balked at father's scheule, as he had given himself the majority of the summer. Mother called father and both agreed to follow the schedule that mother had written.

All was well during the summer until this week, the last prior to school beginning. Mother was to have children Thursday eve til Saturday eve in order to shop for school clothes and supplies.

Father left a message on mother's phone Monday, stating that mother would not be allowed to pick up on Thursday, that it "wouldn't be necessary", effectively denying agreed upon visitation.

Childen are upset. Mother is ticked. While one offense does not a contempt make, I would like to send him the message that, while I am not going to fight this one transgression, I WILL in the future file if he pulls this again.

I am considering writing a letter to send to my attorney (who is chronically AWOL) and to his attorney stating that I will persue legally in the future should he try this again. I have the feeling that if I hit him in the wallet on this (his atty will charge him about $100 to receive the fax, read it and call him to smack him on the hand) it will head off future events.

Questions:

Is there a form letter for this? I searched the SPARC archives, and while they have a good one on intent for seeking visitation, I cannot find one for this kind of matter.

Seeing as my atty will take a week to get back to me (at least if he ever does), is it kosher to simply fax this letter to both my atty and his?

Thanks,
FLMom

[socrateaser]

>Is there a form letter for this? I searched the SPARC
>archives, and while they have a good one on intent for seeking
>visitation, I cannot find one for this kind of matter.

I don't know. I have no specific knowledge of SPARC's resources, other than my own contributions to this board.

>
>Seeing as my atty will take a week to get back to me (at least
>if he ever does), is it kosher to simply fax this letter to
>both my atty and his?

Kosher implies something more than legal. It is legal for you to contact your ex, and it is legal for you to contact opposing counsel, however, he/she is obligated to notify your attorney that you have done so, and your attorney may decide that you are a "difficult client" and ask the court to permit him/her to withdraw from the representation, because attorneys like to be in complete control of the means and methods of the legal process.

[FLMom]

Thank you for your reply. I believe I worded my questions poorly.

Other than the Final Order in our case, I am used to writing out what we were filing throughout my attempt to modify custody, and my attorney would use those paragraphs in whatever Order we were filing at the time. You have helped me immensely in the past to use the correct "legal verbage".

"Kosher" is an improper term, I know. It's my attempt at being flippant when my ex has "done it again".

I thought of "Intent for Parties to Follow Calendar Schedule", and include a very short synopsis of the facts that visitation times were agreed upon then reneged on. I just want it notated that while I stepped back this time, I won't do it throughout the entire school year at another's whim.

Question:

What headline could be used in this letter?

Thank You,
FLMom

[socrateaser]

>Question:
>
>What headline could be used in this letter?

Re: Denial of Parenting Time

Dear X:

According to our current parenting plan agreement, I was supposed to exercise parenting time on ??/??/????. However, when I spoke to you by telephone on ??/??/????, you indicated _________.

Your unilateral change to the schedule has cause our daughter considerable distress, as it interferes with her previous plan to _____.

For the benefit of our child, and for both of us, I sincerly believe that we should both attempt to stick to the substance of the parenting plan agreement, with as much consistency as can be reasonably expected, given life's little vagaries.

I hope that we can keep things amicable, for our child's sake, as well as for our respective pocketbooks, however, if I start to see your changing the parenting schedule as the rule, rather than the exception, then I will be forced to ask the court to provide some guidance.

Sincerely,
______________
Biatch

[FLMom]

Soc,

As always you are absolutely wonderful. The title and the letter are everything that needs to be said without going overboard. Perfecto. Thanks SO much!

I didn't used to be a Biatch, then ex took off with our kids. Now I'm quite proud that I am---lol---got me joint custody.

I have a sister who is early 30's, single with no kids and never been married. For all you've done for me, just say the word and I'll set ya'll up AND spring for the first date for the two of you! ;-)

Thanks a million,
FLMom

[socrateaser]

>I have a sister who is early 30's, single with no kids and
>never been married. For all you've done for me, just say the
>word and I'll set ya'll up AND spring for the first date for
>the two of you! ;-)

I'm probably a little too old for her. She may not be able to keep up!