CP seeking supervised visitation

[concerned_stepmom]

My husband and his ex have a 4 year old daughter. He has has liberal visitation for the last 3 years. She has Sole Custody but he has visitation. Now she has decided that we cannot see the daughter til we go back to court... July 27!  She says she now wants supervised visititations for my husband. They had an altercation 4 years ago (2003) and she threw him in jail for Domestic abuse. Since then the case was dismissed (2005) because she signed an affadavit saying that she over reacted and it never really happened. Does she have just cause for him to only have supervised visititation? Nothing has happened since the altercation in 2003. She denied us visitation on Father's Day weekend!! We have not seen the daughter since June 2.

[Kitty C.]

........what are you going back to court for?  And who filed?

[mistoffolees]

>My husband and his ex have a 4 year old daughter. He has has
>liberal visitation for the last 3 years. She has Sole Custody
>but he has visitation. Now she has decided that we cannot see
>the daughter til we go back to court... July 27!  She says she
>now wants supervised visititations for my husband. They had an
>altercation 4 years ago (2003) and she threw him in jail for
>Domestic abuse. Since then the case was dismissed (2005)
>because she signed an affadavit saying that she over reacted
>and it never really happened. Does she have just cause for him
>to only have supervised visititation? Nothing has happened
>since the altercation in 2003. She denied us visitation on
>Father's Day weekend!! We have not seen the daughter since
>June 2.


In general, she's going to have to prove a need for a change. I would think that it would be impossible for her to use a 4 year old altercation - particularly when she signed an affidavit that nothing happened.

The bigger issue is visitation. What does your court order say about visitation? If she is refusing to provide the visitation allowed in the court order, I would suggest that you consider filing for contempt BEFORE she files her attempt to request supervised visitation. That way, it looks like she was doing it in retaliation. But regardless of timing, if you have a valid court order which spells out visitation and she's denying it, you should probably file for contempt (see an attorney). On the other hand, if your order has just wishy-washy stuff like 'reasonable visitation', you're not likely to prove contempt. In that case, I would suggest filing for clarification of visitation and proposing a very specific visitation schedule.