There was a recent case in Family Court in New York County by Judge Hasa A. Kingo S.F. v. M.S. 02267-22 on November 7.  The parties here share four children and had engaged in extensive litigation for family offenses and custody in family court since 2021.  The mother had filed a family offense petition against the respondent’s father and also a petition for custody of all four children.  The referee granted father visitation by court order and he had weekly parenting time.  

The mother, however, refused to allow the visits and the father moved, by order to show cause for an order of contempt against the mother, saying that she violated the order of the court by failing to produce the children for their allotted parenting time on eight separate occasions.  The court granted the father’s motion, finding that the temporary order of visitation was unequivocal, that the mother had notice of the visitation order and violated it without credible explanation, and that the father’s rights to parenting time were prejudice as a result.  As a penalty for the mother’s contempt, the court granted the father additional parenting time to compensate for the time he lost. 

As I have written extensively on the importance to not only follow orders but to ensure your order is clear and can be enforced. We are very aware of this at the DePalo Law Firm and draft our agreements accordingly.

The courts take their orders very seriously. In this case the Judge wrote that the order was unequivocal. This means it was clear and not subject to interpretation. You cannot find violated an order or that they should be held in contempt if the language is not precise, detailed, and clear. 

 I have seen a number of parenting agreements that are very willy nilly, and do not actually define when there is a pick- up and a drop- off, who is responsible for the pick- up and drop- offs, the times of the visits, what days visitation will occur and they are very hard to enforce. If your agreement perchance says by mutual agreement; it can never be enforced. 

 It is better to have more detail in your parenting plan so that if there is a violation, you can go to court and have a declaration of contempt and violation of a court order.  You can’t violate something if it is not clear.  That’s the lesson to be learned from this decision and others like it. Make sure that your agreements are very detailed and precise.