I was divorced and lied to during my divorce and I am disabled can I take my ex back to court for spousal support?
Can you try? Yes. Will you succeed? Probably not. Unless you can prove (not persuade, but demonstrate by objectively, independently verifiable proof) that your ex-husband defrauded the court, you’re likely stuck with the decree and court orders you’ve got. This is extremely difficult in its own right. This is also extremely expensive and most people don’t have that kind of money.
Why Not Have the Judge Interview the Children About Child Custody?
Why Appoint a GAL or Custody Evaluator When the Judge Can Interview the Children?
This post is the first in series of 15 posts on the subject of custody evaluations and the appointment of guardians ad litem (“GALs” for short) in Utah child custody cases when the judge could simply interview the children instead. You do not have to read all 16 posts to benefit from this series. Read as many or as few as you wish.
The purpose of this series is to make the case for the proposition that an interview by the judge is a faster, more accurate, more particular, more reliable, and less expensive form of evidence than what a GAL and/or custody evaluator provides.
I can imagine a case in which ordering a custody evaluation and/or appointment of a guardian ad litem may be warranted, even necessary, but generally guardians ad litem and custody evaluations are an obscene waste of time and money and effort. They don’t just fail to justify their costs; they spectacularly fail to justify their costs. Instead, in the overwhelming majority of child custody disputes, the court can and should interview the children directly. The Utah Code expressly provides for this. Section 30-3-10(5), to be exact. Yet in 24 years of practice I have never had a judge agree to interview a child in a child custody dispute. Not once. And I submit that’s ridiculous. In the posts that follow we will discuss why judges interviewing children is clearly superior to appointing guardians ad litem and/or custody evaluations for the vast majority of child custody dispute cases.
Can I refuse visitation when a non-custodial parent refuses to take a child to school?
In the jurisdiction where I practice divorce and family law (Utah), the answer is:
Unless you have a court order that allows you to refuse visitation (or “parent-time” as it is now called in Utah) if the other parent refuses to take the child to school, then NO. Utah law is very clear that the parent in your position cannot withhold or interfere with parent-time as a means of controlling or punishing the other parent.
But clearly your concerns about school attendance are valid ones. So what can you do about that? In Utah, you could:
file a motion with the court seeking to have the other parent who is failing/refusing to get the child to school held in contempt IF there is a court order already in existence that directs that parent to ensure the child gets to school on time on the mornings the child is with that parent.
If there is no court order already in existence that directs that parent to ensure the child gets to school on time on the mornings the child is with that parent, then you could file a petition with the court seeking to modify the child custody and/or parent-time award(s), alleging that because the other parent is failing/refusing to get the child to school the child custody and/or parent-time award(s) need to be modified to address and remedy this problem.
What you cannot do is take the law into your own hands and withhold or interfere with parent-time in response to the other parent failing to get the child to school.
Utah Family Law, LC | divorceutah.com | 801-466-9277