Dad who wants his visitation rights

[Donald]

It has been over two years now since I have been able to visit with my soon to be 16 yr old daughter. When she turned 14, my daughter wrote a letter to me stating that she didn't want to visit with me, even though her older sisters continue to see me. I was informed that she had the right to cancel all visitation with me as she was now at the legal age to decide such matters in the state of Georgia?

I find this highly suspect and have questioned my attorney about it also. There seems to be some grey area regarding the rights of a 14 yr old in Georgia. If anyone knows the legal ruling about the 14 yr decide on visitation ruling, please respond.

In my decree it states that "if the mother and father cannot agree on the visitation of the minor children, then the father will have the child every other weekend, from Friday evening to SUnday evening". This is what is written by law. I know in my own analysis of this situation that has been ongoing,  my ex is in contempt of this ruling, as she is the one backing my daughter from seeing me all together. I would like to pursue my visitation rights without a court order. Any advice is appreciated.

[booger_cat2]

Well, we are in Maryland, I don't know what your laws there are, but we have gone through a similar issue this summer....read my post from last week.

We went to our lawyer on Tuesday to see about the contempt charge that we made against my husband's ex.  We had a similar thing happen in that we had an answering machine message from his daughter that said she didn't want to come to our house anymore and not to pick her up.  However, since then, she has been coming up on normal weekends.  If she didn't want to come up on the normal 2 week summer stretches, you would think she wouldn't want to come up on the weekends.  Anyway, our lawyer said that as long as there is a court order, then the child has to come with you or you can charge your ex with contempt.  We have a hearing date of Aug. 19th.  She has to show cause by Aug. 13th as to why she denied visitation, if she has a reason.  Unfortunately, you may have to push forward with a court action.  Just receiving the paperwork in the mail may go ahead and force her to make the child come with you for normal visitations.  If they child really doesn't want to come (and she's at that age, ours is 13, hanging out with friends at the beach is sure more fun than coming up to dad's), I don't know that I would force the issue, but at least let your daughter know how you feel.  It hurts, I know.  He told us that if she states in the show cause that she didn't make her go because she didn't want to, then the court will have an impartial person interview your daughter to find out the truth.  They will usually open up to a stranger that assures them that they will not get into any trouble for expressing the way that they feel.  The court will take the child's testimony into consideration to make the final decision.

Hope this helps!!  Good Luck!!