Essential Steps for Safeguarding Your Child’s Well-Being
Hello, my name is Dillan Savage of Wirth Law Office – Oklahoma City. Today we are going to be talking about what you as a parent can do in a situation where you believe your child is being placed in harm’s way or even being harmed by the other parent.
Oklahoma has actually got a statute on this. It is under Title 43, Section 111.4. In the event that you have a reasonable belief and you are acting in good faith that your child is potentially being abused at the home of the other parent or that they are being exposed to drugs, alcohol, something that would place them in harm’s way or just being outright neglected, which could cause irreparable harm to your child, you can take certain steps.
Steps to Take If Your Child is in Danger
Those steps could include calling the police for welfare checks, it could be getting DHS involved, Child Protective Services, or if it is bad enough and again you are acting in good faith and reasonably, you could potentially withhold visitation from the other party. This is, as I said, backed up by Oklahoma law under statute in Title 43, Section 111.4.
It specifically says that if the child is going to be exposed to irreparable harm, you can potentially refuse to permit visitation. Now this is the extreme because if this happens, you will likely be pulled into court and you are going to have to prove that there was in fact irreparable harm. So before you do that, make sure that you are sure about this.
Seeking Legal Protection for Your Child
In the event that you do have that evidence, it is always best to get a court order for the refusal of visitation of the other party. What you can do is get your evidence together and file a motion to suspend visitation for the other party. Now the court at that point will hear your motion and they could suspend the other party’s visitation rights or force them to go to supervised visitation.
It really just depends on the viewpoint of the court at that point. So again, it is always best to get a court order to back you up on this. And so to summarize again, in the event that you believe your child is facing irreparable harm in the custody and control of the other party, you do have options to protect your child.
Get Help Today: Low-Cost Consultation Available
If you found this video to be helpful or you believe it could help somebody else, please go to Oklahoma City attorney. For a low-cost consultation, call us at 405-888-5400. My name is Dillan Savage of Wirth Law Office and thank you for watching.
