If you are a non-custodial parent in California, then you do not have the legal right to have your child reside with you nor do you have the legal right to take part in making important decisions on that child’s behalf. But non-custodial parents often do have a right to visitation with their children, but this right to visitation can only be granted through a court order. Therefore, if you have not been granted visitation by a court, then you have no right to visitation.
When Courts Will Grant Visitation
Even though a court order is required for visitation, the California courts will generally award reasonable visitation rights to a biological parent unless doing so would be detrimental to the child. There is no requirement that a parent ever have been married to the other parent to win visitation rights, and factors such as religion, race, physical disability, or sexual orientation cannot be used to defeat a request for visitation.
Instead the courts will examine the “best interests of the child” in determining whether visitation should be awarded, which are the same factors analyzed in a custody determination, but the courts will employ a lower bar for granting visitation than for granting shared custody. These factors include:
- The age and health of the child
- The existing ties between the child and parent seeking visitation
- The ability of parents to care and provide for the child
- Any history of domestic violence or alcohol/drug abuse
- The child’s ties to the community, school, etc.
Types of Visitation Granted
If the family law court determines that it is in the best interests of a child to award a non-custodial parent visitation, then it may order one of the following types of visitation:
- Scheduled Visitation: The parents can submit a visitation schedule to the court which describes the times of the week and conditions of the visitation, or the court itself may formulate such a schedule.
- Reasonable Visitation: This type of visitation gives the parents the flexibility to work together on an ongoing basis to schedule visitation as they please according to their ongoing needs and schedules.
- Supervised Visitation: If the court is concerned about the potential for problems between a child and parent during visitation, then it may order visitation supervised by the other parent, another adult, or an outside agency representative.
It is important for parents to remember that visitation does not give the non-custodial parent custodial rights during the time of the visit, e.g. the ability to make important decisions on behalf of the child.
Legal Help is Available in Your California Custody/Visitation Matter
At the Law Office of Kelley C. Finan in Torrance, we work exclusively in family law matters. We are dedicated to helping parents get the custody and visitation orders they are entitled to under California law. Contact us today at 424-255-3797 to schedule a consultation to talk about we can help you obtain a happy outcome in your custody/visitation matter.