Your children have just come home from visitation with their other parent and related some disturbing details about the weekend. Or perhaps you learned through other channels that your children have been exposed to situations you believe to be inappropriate for children of their ages, or worse, dangerous to their health and well-being. Is there anything you can do without violating the visitation order? Most parents have an instinctive drive to protect their children from harm. The problem arises when one parent believes a situation or activity is harmful to the children, while the other parent does not. The difference of opinion may lead one parent to withhold visitation, which in turn can lead the other parent to ask the court for a finding of contempt. While every parent should protect their children from actual, imminent danger, the underlying question in a case where visitation has been withheld is what led the custodial parent to withhold visitation in the first place. In other words, would a judge agree that continued visitation under the circumstance is likely to be harmful to the children? Will you be able to adequately defend your actions if you withhold visitation? A better course of action, if you believe visitation with the other parent is harmful to your children, is to be proactive: Take your case to court before violating the visitation order if possible. The general rule is that a California court will allow visitation in every case unless it would be physically or emotionally harmful to the children. Thus, if you want visitation suspended, you must be prepared to show evidence that the children have and will suffer physical or emotional harm if visitation continues. If your situation is urgent, we may be able to help you get an ex parte order, which is in the nature of an emergency order, and is the quickest way to get temporary court approval to withhold visitation. At the Law Offices of Judy L. Burger, we receive calls regularly from parents on both sides of this issue. If you believe continued visitation is harmful to your children, or if you believe visitation has been wrongfully withheld from you, contact us to discuss your rights and a recommended course of action. The Law Offices of Judy L. Burger can assist you in fighting for your rights and those of your children in a visitation or custody dispute in California. Judy L. Burger is known for her aggressive representation of clients in high conflict cases in and around the Sacramento and San Francisco Bay areas. If you are a parent with a visitation or custody issue, call us today to learn more about how we can help. Call (916)631-1935 in the Sacramento area, or (415)293-8314 in the San Francisco Bay area, or contact us online via our confidential inquiry form.

Whether you face a hotly contested custody battle or are contemplating an agreement with your soon-to-be-ex, it is vital that you understand the legal terminology of custody orders in California, such as sole custody, joint custody, legal custody and physical custody. There are two main facets of child custody. Physical custody refers to who the children will live with. On the other hand, legal custody refers to who has authority to make key decisions about the children, such as health choices, education, and religious training. Sometimes, children of divorced parents in California will live primarily with one parent or the other. That parent will be known as the sole physical custodian. Another possible outcome of a custody dispute is that both parents are granted shared physical custody, or joint physical custody. Joint physical custody means that the children will spend as much time with both parents as possible, but it does not mean parents will necessarily get equal time with the children. Separate from the physical custody arrangement, parents commonly share joint legal custody, meaning they share joint authority to make major decisions for the children. Sometimes, one parent is awarded sole legal custody, which means that parent has the sole right and responsibility to make major decisions for the children. Under California law, judges must decide custody based on what is in the best interests of the children. To make that decision, judges consider many factors, including:

• The ages of the children,
• The emotional ties between the parents and the children,
• The ability of the parents to care for the children,
• The health of the children,
• Any history of family violence or substance abuse, and
• The children’s ties to school, home, and community.

Custody is not automatically awarded to the mother or the father. Rather, a parent seeking sole custody must show that it is in the children’s best interest for that parent to have sole legal and physical custody, and must be prepared to refute the other parent’s evidence to the contrary. The Law Offices of Judy L. Burger can assist you in fighting for your rights and those of your children in a custody dispute in California. Judy L. Burger is known for her aggressive representation of clients in high conflict cases in and around the Sacramento and San Francisco Bay areas. If you are a parent facing a custody battle, and would like to learn more about how we can help you, contact us today at (916)631-1935 in the Sacramento area, or (415)293-8314 in the San Francisco Bay area, or online via our confidential inquiry form.