Brooklyn Visitation

For the parent who has not been given full custody, visitation might be seen as a kind of consolation prize especially since they are also responsible for child support. Any Brooklyn Visitation Lawyer will be able to tell you, though, that today Family Courts throughout New York are increasingly giving increased amounts of visitation time for the parent who does not have custody. In fact, if your Brooklyn Family Lawyer or Brooklyn Divorce Lawyer presents the appropriate legal argument, your visitation award can far exceed what is the more standard, customary schedule of alternate weekends. Visitation schedules today can often, in fact, go beyond those weekends by including regular visits on weeknights, overnight stays, as well as extended periods of visitation. This might even extend to dropping off or picking up your child from school, or a longer vacation time with your child. In the offices of Stephen Bilkis & Associates, PLLC, every Brooklyn Visitation lawyer is aware that those versions of expanded visitation schedules are frequently being awarded all through New York City, as well as from Long Island, to Westchester County. This is true even though the individual counties involved will naturally have their own courts and judiciary. This is a development that is being greeted with relief and joy by advocates for the non custodial parent which includes Fathers Rights and Grandparents Rights advocates.

“Standard visitation,” which has been the basic starting point for a visitation schedule, typically is made up of 1) visits with your child on every second weekend, 2) time with your child on alternating holidays, and 3) vacation times (usually four weeks). A Brooklyn Family Lawyer in our offices will explain, however, that when your Family Court judge believes the parent seeking additional visitation time is a good and decent parent, your judge will possibly show flexibility in determining your visitation schedule. This is because the Family Court, more and more, is tending to view the involvement of both a child’s parents in its life as something that is in the best interests of that child. And this—your child’s best interest—is the legal standard which will shape any decision about visitation.

Presenting the case for your increased involvement in the upbringing of your child is obviously something that deserves skilled representation from an experienced Brooklyn Visitation Lawyer. A visitation case can be complex—not unlike other factors of your divorce, your separation or other Family Law matter. In some visitation cases, for instance, a parent might be granted only supervised visitation by the court. This occurs when the Judge decides that to leave the child alone with this parent presents a possible risk to that child. Supervision might be something that is provided by some government-related agency, or perhaps by a family member the court has decided is a responsible individual. As we’ve mentioned, any of these kinds of aspects to your visitation case are going to be judged on one legal standard: the child’s best interest.

Modifying A Current Visitation Order

Your visitation arrangement might, over time and as your family situation changes, require an update or change. For instance, in a situation of supervised visitation, a parent can move toward unsupervised visitation, possibly through the aid of counseling. To be granted a reexamination of and modification to an existing Visitation order, Brooklyn Family Court must be of the view that a legal threshold has been met, and that is this: a substantial change to the family’s circumstances must have occurred. The qualifying change of circumstances can be (but isn’t limited to) one of the following: a parent’s work schedule changed, a parent must relocate, or the child has an observed need for the increased influence of his or her other parent.

The process of determining your visitation arrangement is one similar to that which determines Child Custody. It can include the following steps:

• Your Brooklyn Family Lawyer files a visitation petition, and this happens at the court in whichever county your child resides—Kings County (Brooklyn), Richmond County (Staten Island), Nassau County on Long Island, or Westchester County, etc.
• Filing of the petition may be with either Family Court or the Supreme Court (the Matrimonial part). Various visitation cases will then proceed.
• A petition of Primary Visitation sets out the initial visitation schedule.
• If the aim is altering your existing visitation order, a modification to that visitation order is filed.
• A petition of violation of the visitation order may be filed in Brooklyn Family Court when the parent (or other person) who is subject to the order fails to obey it. Violation petitions request a Family Court ruling against the party who is violating the order. These petitions will often also request a Court to take some sort of punitive action—visitation rights for the violating party might, for example, by revoked by the Family Court judge.

Be sure you have at your side an experienced Brooklyn Visitation Lawyer as you go through your Family Law matter. When you contact Stephen Bilkis & Associates, PLLC, we will share with you our experience in all kinds of Family Law cases, visitation cases included. Each Brooklyn Visitation Lawyer on our team will show you the understanding and sensitivity your case deserves—we recognize that a variety of issues can complicate life when you’re trying to raise a child with the court’s intervention.

For free initial advice, speak with a Brooklyn Visitation Lawyer: Call our office as soon as you can at 800.696.9529. We’ll address your Custody matter, a case centered on a Fathers Rights, how to best handle Grandparents Rights, managing a Child Support order, your Divorce, or a matter of Abuse & Neglect case as well as an Order of Protection. We’re located conveniently throughout all of New York City—not just in Brooklyn, but also in Manhattan, in Richmond County (Staten Island). We’re in Queens, too, and also in the Bronx. You’ll find our offices also on Long Island—both Nassau County with an additional office in Suffolk County—and in Westchester County.