In the near future, I plan to introduce legislation pertaining to child custody orders and parental contempt. The need for this legislation comes from multiple testimonies of constituents whose custody orders were violated by the other parent’s refusal to follow the order, resulting in missed time with one or more children.

In ongoing and contentious child custody situations, a parent often faces missed time when the other parent fails to return a child or children on time or refuses to make the child or children available to the other parent. A parent should be given additional custody time, on a temporary basis, to make up for the time they lost due to the other parent’s refusal to abide by the custody order as written.

My legislation revives legislation first introduced nearly a decade ago which stalled only after its prime sponsor left the General Assembly to become a judge. It’s common-sense legislation that would allow a judge to temporarily modify a custody order to grant custody when one parent is found to be in contempt.

Unfortunately, this solution is not among the enumerated “sanctions” listed in the Child Custody Act. Current law defaults to punitive consequences for the party in contempt. Restorative options focus on the best interest of the child, making up time lost with the parent who has also been robbed of time spent with their child/children. It is time to enact this fair and sensible remedy.

Please join me in co-sponsoring this legislation.