If a Utah court ordered supervised visitation, you may be wondering what to expect from having to communicate and interact with your child under the supervision of another person.
Luckily, our Salt Lake City child visitation attorneyEmy A. Cordano was around to answer that question and help you get a better understanding of how supervised visitation works in Utah.
Supervised visitation in Utah: why, when, and how
When it comes to establishing child custody and child visitation in a divorce, a Utah court has the discretion to establish parent-time and child visitation in the best interests of the children. If there have been allegations of child abuse against you, the other parent will most likely ask the family court to order supervised visitation to ensure the child’s safety when it’s your turn to spend time with the kids.
Under Utah law, supervision should be ordered when there is evidence that the child has been subject to physical or emotional harm or child abuse. Many parents who were ordered supervised visitation feel as though their fundamental right under the U.S. constitution is being violated.
Our child visitation attorney in Salt Lake City explains that while it is true that parents in Utah must have unrestricted and unsupervised access to their children, there are limitations to that access when there are allegations of child abuse, there is proof that the parent caused physical or emotional harm to the child, or there is proof that the parent has problems with alcohol or drug abuse.
How supervised visitation in Utah works
If you have been ordered to have supervised visitation, getting legal help from an experienced child visitation lawyer in Salt Lake City or elsewhere in Utah is often the only way to have the supervised parent-time requirement removed and demand the court to not violate your fundamental right to raise your children.
However, even your lawyer is not able to modify the current child visitation arrangement, it’s not the end of the world. Right now, you might be wondering how supervised visitation works in Utah. And our Salt Lake City child visitation lawyer is going to explain how.
Who will be supervising child visitation?
Let me guess. You are probably wondering who will be supervising your parent-time with the children. More often than not, the family court in Utah will name the parties to supervise your parent-time. Usually, the court gives preference to relatives, but any person who is willing to supervise and is capable of protecting the child from physical or emotional harm, child abuse, or any other negative influence or impact, may be authorized to supervise child visitation.
It often happens that the court is not able to immediately find a capable and willing person who would be authorized to supervise child visitation. If that’s the case, the court will order the supervised parent to hire a social worker or any other professional individual to supervise parent-time. In this case, hiring a professional individual usually occurs at the expense of the supervised parent.
How to modify supervised visitation in Utah?
If a court ordered supervised visitation, in no way does it mean that you will be unable to communicate and interact with your child without the presence of another individual for the rest of your life. In fact, supervised visitation can be modified, but only if you are represented by an experienced child visitation attorney in Salt Lake City or elsewhere in Utah.
Usually, in order to get the requirement of supervised visitation removed, the supervised parent is required to accomplish a series of expectations from the court. In fact, you, as the supervised parent, have the right to petition the court to modify the current arrangement at any given time. But it is best to do so when you give it some to be able to demonstrate evidence that you have had several supervised visitation sessions, all of which went smoothly.
Get a legal consultation from our divorce lawyer Emy A. Cordano. Call our offices at (801) 901-8159 for a case evaluation.