Legal Question in Family Law in Connecticut
Alleged contempt of divorce court order
My ex-husband has not exercised his visitation rights in 8 years including not initiating any contact with the children, now ages 10, 12 &13. The only sporadic contact i have had with him in this time period, was in court in his numerous attempts to modify child support and address his nonpayment of child support. For a long period of time, i had no information of his whereabouts. There were issues of domestic violence in our home when married. Now he says he wants to see the children and I am denying him. None of the children want to see him. I have not followed all of the items in our divorce simply because he has been absent from our lives. For instance, I have travelled numerous times outside our home state and the country with the children, not gaining his permission, he now says; but I did not know where he was. He also makes some untruthful comments about me telling him he should not come to any events involving the children like sports, music; which I explained was because the children do not feel comfortable with it. My question is how likely is it that I will be found in contempt with an order when he has been unreachable for so long?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Alleged contempt of divorce court order
It seems like your ex-husband is making those kinds of threats to get you to do what he wants. If he goes to court to try and get visitation, the court is going to be much more concerned about what is best for your children than about anything else. I cannot say absolutely that a court would not find you in contempt without having more specific information from you. I can say (1)that to be found in contempt, a court has to find that you wilfully disobeyed court orders, (2) that if your ex-husband did not keep you informed of his whereabouts, a court is not going to listen to his complaints that you did not contact him. However, your main focus should be on what is best for your children. Courts generally believe that children should have contact with both parents. If your husband has straightened himself out, a court may allow him to start having some limited visitation with your children. A court may also want to get some insight into your children's feelings by appointing an attorney for your children or, if your children have been in counseling, by seeing what the counselors have to say. Please feel free to call or email me for more information.
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