Often I am asked when a child of divorced parents (or parents who never married) does not have to visit one parent. Illinois law clearly holds that court-ordered parenting time, formerly called custody and visitation, applies until the child reaches age 18. Until then, residential parents may not willfully and unreasonably disregard parenting time requirements of a divorce or parentage judgment or order. A parent not allowing court-ordered parenting time may face contempt or visitation abuse charges.
On September 30 the Illinois Appellate Court issued its opinion in Knoll v. Coyne, in which a mother allegedly prevented her former husband from having court-ordered visitation with their son. The trial court found the mother in contempt of court, and also found that she committed visitation abuse. For legal technical reasons, the contempt against the mother was reversed on appeal, but the visitation abuse finding was affirmed. The court opinion is 33 pages in total, so the extensive details are omitted from this summary article. However, one detail was that the mother prevented the father from having the child for almost all of the Father’s Day holiday weekend.
Beginning in 2016 Illinois law was changed from “visitation abuse” to “abuse of allocated parenting time”. It happens when a parent has willfully and without justification denied the other parent’s court ordered parenting time. The residential parent’s potential defenses include that the denial of parenting time was not willful or was justified. Remedies for this type of abuse finding include allowing make up parenting time, attending parental education programs, attending counseling, and paying attorney fees and costs.
My law firm has consulted and represented many parents on both sides of these issues. If you have had parenting time problems, please call or e-mail me. We can set up a consultation and see I can help.