Also known as: visitation orders · visitation rights order
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A court directive that specifies the schedule and conditions under which a noncustodial parent or other person with a significant relationship may visit a child. The order may allocate responsibility for facilitating contact and remains subject to modification when circumstances change or when the parties agree.
Veronica Villanueva and her former partner agree that the noncustodial parent should have an extra weekend each month. They submit the proposed change to the court. The court enters the modified visitation order because the new arrangement serves the child's best interest.
Vanessa Vinson, a fit parent, limits her child's contact with the paternal grandparents after repeated disputes over discipline. The grandparents petition under a statute allowing any person to seek visitation based solely on best interests. The trial court grants unsupervised overnight visits without according special weight to Vanessa's decision, producing an order that a reviewing court later invalidates.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Virgil Vaughn obtains a Chilean visitation order granting him scheduled contact with his child. After the child moves to the United States with the custodial parent, Virgil seeks enforcement of the existing order. The U.S. court recognizes the foreign visitation order and assists in carrying out the scheduled access.
A court may modify a final visitation order on a showing by a preponderance of the evidence that a substantial and continuing change in circumstances has occurred and that modification serves the child's best interest. Modification is also permitted when the parties agree, unless the court finds the agreement contrary to the child's best interest.
Supporting sources
The Due Process Clause protects a fit parent's fundamental right to direct the upbringing of the child. A statute or order that permits any person to obtain visitation based solely on a judge's independent best-interests determination, without according special weight to the fit parent's decision, is overbroad and unconstitutional.
Supporting sources
No. A subsequent order addressing only visitation or allocating travel expenses does not modify the support terms. The original support order remains the controlling order that must be enforced unless a tribunal with proper jurisdiction actually changes the payment amount or schedule.
Supporting sources
…child’s best interest. That standard is sufficient to protect the parent’s fundamental rights. The statute does not authorize visitation orders based on mere judicial whim. Rather, it requires the court to give due consideration to the parent’s wishes and to the child’s best interest. In this case, the Superior Court heard…