If the other parent of your child is withholding court-ordered visitation (often now called “parent-time”) with the child from you, can you solve this problem by circumventing/bypassing having to pick up the child from the other parent’s house and instead simply pick up the child on your visitation/parent-time days after school?
If there is no court order that bars you from picking up the child from school on your parent-time days (assuming also that your parent-time starts as early as the time the child is dismissed from school), you certainly could pick up the child from school after school is dismissed for the day. But you know what the other parent may (and likely will) do once you’ve started picking up the child after school, right?
I do because I’ve seen it acted out hundreds of times over the course of my career: the other parent will likely get to the child’s school a few minutes earlier than you do, pick up the child before you can, and then withhold the child from you as usual.
If the other parent is withholding the child from you during the time you and the child are scheduled by court order to spend parent-time together, then the other parent is doing one or both of the following things: committing a crime (custodial interference) and/or committing contempt of court.
You can report this crime to law enforcement, but in Utah, police departments and sheriff’s offices rarely issue citations or make arrests for custodial interference, and even if they do, prosecutors rarely prosecute it. But otherwise, the other parent could be tried and convicted of custodial interference.
You could also file a motion to find the other parent in contempt of court and to be sanctioned for it. In each case, the other parent could, if found culpable, end up doing jail time, having to perform community service, and/or pay a fine, and you could be compensated for the time you and the child were deprived of by being awarded “make up time” to exercise with your child.
In any case, it would be wise to discreetly audio- and video-record (dashcams and spy pens are a great tool) the difficulty you encounter in your efforts to pick up the child for parent-time and what the other parent does to withhold and to interfere with parent-time. It would also be wise to bring a witness with you who can sit in the car quietly and unobtrusively to observe what happens and who can then testify to the court as to what he/she saw and heard. That way you have the proof to prevail in court.
Talk to an experienced attorney to see what options are available to you, and how to exercise those options properly (don’t try to take the law into your own hands or you could end up being the one who is prosecuted or sanctioned).
Utah Family Law, LC | divorceutah.com | 801-466-9277