Court orders are very serious. Whether the court made its order based on its own findings or whether the court adopted a stipulated agreement, the involved parties are expected to follow the order.
For example, say there is an order for parenting time where the mother is granted parenting time with the parties’ children every other weekend. The father decides that this schedule is not in the kid’s best interests and refuses to drop off the kids for parenting time. What happens?
Mom can bring dad back to court to enforce the order. If dad wanted the parenting time schedule changed, then he should have asked the court to change it—not unilaterally decided to change the parenting time schedule. If mom takes dad back to court to enforce the order, not only does it make dad look bad in regards to future proceedings involving the children, but it also may give the judge reason to award mom attorney’s fees for bringing the action.
Here’s the rule of thumb for divorcing parents: if you cannot agree on an issue, follow the court order. If they don’t like the court order, then ask the court to change it.
