Negotiating Timesharing During Coronavirus
COVID-19 has severely disrupted lives across the country. If you have shared timesharing arrangement with your spouse or ex-spouse, you may be uncertain about the rules concerning joint timesharing during this difficult time. Judges across Florida and in Sarasota, Bradenton, and Venice have made it clear that child timesharing and parental responsibility orders, as well as Parenting Plans, still remain in effect. However, you may have genuine concerns about allowing your child to visit his or her mother or father during coronavirus. The best response is open communication and negotiation with your spouse or ex-spouse. Here are some of the issues you want to explore with them:
Safety first
If your child has an underlying health condition that would make getting coronavirus more serious, such as auto-immune deficiency, obesity, diabetes, or heart disease, then you should keep him or her indoors and away from other people. Your spouse or ex-spouse should be amenable to this idea and should agree to also keep your child indoors and away from other people during his or her timesharing until this crisis has passed.
Alternatives to physical visiting
As this crisis worsens, and more people in the USA get sick and die, you should consider exploring various alternatives to certain physical visits. For example, your spouse, ex-spouse, grandparents, aunts, uncles, nieces, and nephews can use Facetime, Zoom, and Skype to see and speak to your kid virtually. They can also keep in touch by phone and text. During this crisis, it is important for children to hear the reassuring voices of both parents, grandparents, and other relatives.
Make-up timesharing compensation post-COVID-19
As the coronavirus crisis gets worse, and more people in this country get sick, certain scheduled timesharing may have to be forfeited temporarily just as a practical matter. Therefore, you and your spouse or ex-spouse should also make arrangements for the child to spend more time with the parent who had to forfeit certain timesharing days after the coronavirus crisis has passed. This should be done promptly to compensate that parent for all the time that he, she, or a grandparent with scheduled timesharing missed out on during coronavirus.
Contact a Divorce Attorney if You Have Questions Regarding How Coronavirus Affects Your Timesharing in Sarasota, Bradenton, Lakewood Ranch, or Venice, Florida
If you live in Sarasota, Bradenton, Lakewood Ranch, or Venice, Florida, you should involve Sarasota divorce attorney Matthew Z. Martell as soon as possible if your spouse or ex-spouse is not allowing you to see your child due to coronavirus. In short, at this time you are not allowed to withhold timesharing due to COV-19 pursuant to local administrative orders recently entered on this topic in the 12th Judicial Circuit which encompasses Sarasota, Manatee, and Desoto Counties. The Law Offices of Matthew Z. Martell, P.A. has a timesharing lawyer in Sarasota and Lakewood Ranch, Florida who can help you with such a problem. You should contact the Law Offices of Matthew Z. Martell, P.A. at (941) 556-7020 for your free 15-minute phone consultation today.
