Legal Question in Family Law in Maryland

Technically, any deviation from the visitation order is contempt. Life has a habit of getting in the way, of course, and everyone knows this. Even if conduct is technically contempt, the remedy a court would realistically impose is limited. On the first point, part of it will depend on how old the daughter is. The personal desires of a 17 year old would weigh more heavily on a judge than that of a 5 year old throwing a tantrum. On the second point, if you can't afford to pick them up have you asked the mother if she could do the drop off? It's important for both sides to try and be accommodating up to a point. If the mother is relying on your picking them up for weekend visitation, say, for example, because she's got a job and has to work during the weekends, then this could be a big problem for her. If she refuses your accommodation request she may have good reason to do so. She really doesn't have to do anything outside the visitation order, but I think a court would be looking for people to act reasonably toward one another before doing anything serious.

Either way, it would be up to one of you to actually bring a contempt action. On #2, if you don't stop by to pick them up and they stay with the mother for the weekend, the mother would have to file a motion with the court to have you held in contempt. This may or may not be likely, depending on the circumstances. On #1, if you miss a visitation due to the daughter not wanting it, I'm sure the most that would happen is the judge would order a make up date sometime. You don't really need to go to court to get those sorts of things done -- people should be able to work those details out themselves. On #2, if you chronically can't afford to pick them up, the visitation order itself may need to be modified.