Custody

If you are not comfortable with the abuser being alone with your child, you might be thinking about asking the judge to order that visits with your child be supervised. If you are already in court because the abuser filed for visitation or custody, you may not have much to lose by asking that the visits be supervised.

However, if there is no current court case, please get legal advice before you start a court case to ask for supervised visits. We strongly suggest that you talk to an attorney specializing in custody cases to find out what you would have to prove to get the visits supervised and how long supervised visits would last, based on the facts of your case.

In the great majority of cases, supervised visits are only a temporary measure. Although the exact visitation order will vary by state, county, or judge, the judge might order a professional to observe the other parent on a few visits or the visits might be supervised by a relative for a few months. If there are no obvious problems, the visits will likely become unsupervised. Often, the other parent ends up with more frequent and longer visits than before you went into court. The abuser may even end up with joint custody.

In some cases, though, starting a case to ask for custody and supervised visits is appropriate to protect your child from immediate danger by the abuser. To find out if that is best in your situation, please go to PA Finding a Lawyer to seek out legal advice.