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Parental Visitation Rights After a Criminal Conviction

Visitation Rights After a Criminal Conviction

When an individual has gone through trial for a crime and is convicted, their visitation rights will most likely be affected. Courts decide this on a case by case basis; they will review the conviction, what crime was committed, and if you are fit to retain your original visitation rights. Usually a court will try its best to keep the child’s life as stable as possibly. A court will rarely change the child’s routine for the worse by taking a parent out of their life. If the crime committed could possibly impact the child like rape, murder or drug crimes, the court will usually revoke visitation rights immediately until further review can be done. The child having a relationship and mentorship with both parents is always the court’s best interest. Often times, if the court believes that a convicted criminal cannot be alone with their child, parenting time can be supervised and a licensed organization will accompany the child every visit.

Conditions

If one parent is convicted of a serious crime, a court can also place restrictions on time allotted with the child. So if a parent is convicted of drunk driving, the court might have another party drive the child around instead of the convicted parent. Usually in cases where a parent is convicted of abusing drugs, courts will only allow that parent to spend time with their child in a public area. The frequency of your crime can also be taken into account by the court. Even if you were not charged for a violent crime, if you incurred multiple convictions or a lot of jail time, your visitation rights will be impacted. Stability issues arise when sentences are long, because the court will not want the child to be influenced by negative parenting behavior. The court’s best interest is for your child to have a stable household and living environment, and you being in prison will not help with that.

Hiring a Skilled Attorney

You should definitely consider reaching out to an experienced child custody attorney such as the child custody lawyer Scottsdale AZ locals trust  if you have recently been convicted of a crime and are worrisome of how it will affect your visitation rights with your child. They will help you understand all of the complicated factors in these types of cases and determine the best way for you to get what you want. Remember to be honest with your attorney.

 A special thanks to our authors at Hildebrand Law for their insight into Family Law.