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How COVID-19 Might Affect Your Child Custody Case | Allan Brandon Tise, PLLC, Attorney at Law
Dec 04, 2020
With cases of COVID-19 surging and states reissuing stay-at-home orders, parents may be confused about how the pandemic may affect their child custody arrangement. Here is what you should know about this evolving topic.
You Can Still Travel to See Your Child
When the stay-at-home order in North Carolina was in place, the governor restricted movement to only essential travel. Traveling to see your child pursuant to a court order is considered essential travel, so you can still travel to see your child. However, you may encounter issues if you are traveling to or from another state, so check guidelines that apply in those jurisdictions.
You Must Follow Your Existing Court Order
The existence of the pandemic itself is not sufficient reason to withhold visitation. The North Carolina Family Court Advisory Commission recommends that parents follow their child custody order and parenting plan as closely as possible. This can help provide consistency and stability during a challenging time.
This means that if you are required to provide visitation with the other parent, you must do so of face potential contempt of court motions.
School Is in Session
Even if your child is completing school through virtual means, the order's provisions regarding visitation during the school year still apply. For example, if your court order states that you get your child during school breaks, that does not mean that you get your child every day they are in virtual school. Instead, you will still observe the typical school calendar and get normal breaks.
You Can Use Technology to Meet Your Obligations
If your child custody order says that visitation must be supervised and the supervisor is not doing in-person visitation meetings, you can likely conduct visitation over Zoom or with other technological methods.
You Can Limit Contact
You are encouraged to follow the CDC guidelines when exchanging children. Some other ways to reduce the spread of illness include:
- Wear a mask or face covering while in public
- Wash your and your child's hands frequently
- Avoid exchanging personal items, if possible
- Monitor for symptoms of COVID-19
You Must Notify the Other Parent of COVID-19 Risks
If you or another member of your household has been diagnosed with COVID-19 or is displaying symptoms, you should notify the other parent of this as soon as possible.
You Should Try to Work Together
The North Carolina Family Court Advisory Commission encourages parents to work together to resolve issues that arise during this difficult time. Parents should also consider the advice of their healthcare providers and what is in the best interests of their children. Parents may be able to reach temporary modifications of their court order simply by talking out their concerns. In-person visitation may need to be substituted for lots of phone calls and video calls.
If one or both of the households have an emergency responder, parents will want to take extra steps to ensure that the risk of obtaining or spreading the virus is reduced. Courts are generally reluctant to cut off a parent's right to see a child for the duration of the pandemic.
Parents may be able to negotiate temporary changes on their own that address their particular situation. For example, they may agree to postpone parenting time until the threat subsides or to otherwise allow a parent to make up parenting time that they have lost because of the outbreak. However, unilateral withholding of a child from visitation will likely result in a contempt motion. You Can Seek Emergency Relief
If your child's health or safety is at risk, you may be able to seek an emergency order from the court. Even when the courts were closed to the public, they still heard emergency cases. However, the bar to get this type of relief is often higher, so you must be prepared to show why it is essential to protecting your child.
A North Carolina Family Lawyer Can Help
If you need help negotiating temporary changes to your custody order or need to seek a modification of your order, contact child custody attorney Allan Brandon Tise, PLLC.
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Phone: 910-251-9614 | Email: brandon@tisefamilylaw.com | Address: 130 N Front St., Suite 201 Wilmington, NC 28401
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