In my many years in Law Enforcement, I have dealt with divorced couples fighting over countless things ranging from, the silly to the serious.
Each time the Police arrive on the scene of divorced couples arguing over child visitation; both expect the Law to be on their side. The person who is prepared with copies of a court order will be the person the Police are able to help. Otherwise, the Police will only calm the situation down and direct each person to speak with their attorneys.
If you have a court order, and you are, experiencing a constant violation of the order by your spouse, here is what you do:
Court orders need to be specific
First, I cannot stress enough how important it is that your court order be accurate, specific and spelled out to the point so anyone would understand what it is saying. Do not allow your court order to be vague so make sure your attorney does his job.
For example, if your court order says that you have “child visitation every other weekend” this is NOT helpful for the Police to determine what weekend it actually is. Therefore, the Officers will be unable to assist you in filing a violation of a court order report. Your court order needs to spell out exactly what weekends, what times, which Holidays, which birthdays, etc., or you may not get your Police report.
Documentation
You should document every time that your ex-spouse is in violation of the court order. Keep a log of all violations and negative contacts from your ex-spouse and the times you have to call the Police. Collect Police business cards from the Officer you speak with to add to your documentation log if you cannot file an actual Police report. This is important to help you build your case.
Filing Police reports
Filing a Police report is a simple process. You are a victim where you live so you file the Police report with your local Police Department, not where your spouse lives. Some Police Departments have an on-line system of reporting, which makes the process easier otherwise, you will need to go to the Police station to file the report.
The Police will need a copy of your court order, what your ex-spouse is violating in the court order and your court file number to put in the Police report.
What to do with the Documentation and Police reports
Your main objective in documenting and filing a Police report for, violation of a court order, is to build and strengthen your case so you can modify your original court order. Note: filing a Police report is not going to put your ex-spouse in jail at this time.
You want to file several Police reports before going back to court and going into court with a nice stack of Police reports shows the Judge that you are serious. Your attorney will ask for a contempt violation and if your ex-spouse continues to violate the court order and there is several contempt violations afterwards then your ex-spouse could face fines or jail time or both.
The bottom line
It is a sad day that divorced couples even have to resort to have the Police involved, filing reports and fighting each other when they are forgetting what is most important.
The money divorced couples spend fighting each other is only making Attorneys rich when that money could be put into some account for the children’s future.
It is my hope this article will be used to help change your minds about fighting each other, and that you will do what is best for who those who matter most, your children.
Article also posted on Bukisa.com and Triond.com by Scott Hallock
