Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Custody Order Clarification topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Court orders clarified visitation be adopted from consolidated order; mediation set as parties seek final hearing date
Summary
After review of earlier consolidated orders and the dismissal of an order of protection, the court directed that the residential/visitation rights previously afforded to the father be clarified and adopted into a single order so schools and third parties can recognize them; the court approved mediation and discussed possible final-hearing dates.
The court directed parties in a long-running family case to produce a single clarifying order that adopts the residential and visitation rights previously granted to the father under a consolidated docket, saying the dismissal of an order of protection should not have nullified the father’s residential time.
Counsel and parties told the court the record had become confused after a 2022 consolidation of a divorce file and an order-of-protection file and a subsequent dismissal of the protection order in December 2022. As a result, the father’s residential time was not reflected in the divorce file, and schools and service providers had declined to provide information or records absent a clear custody order.
Counsel for the father asked the court to incorporate the residential time that had been set by the earlier (now-dismissed) protection order into the divorce file so the father’s visitation rights could be enforced. “Let's just do one order that says ... this court is adopting the prior visitation rights that mister Kantai had,” one attorney said, asking the court to state that dismissal of the protection order did not impair visitation rights because the matters had been consolidated.
Judge David D. Wolfe agreed the file needed clarification and directed the parties to prepare a single order clarifying the respective rights of both parties; the court also approved mediation and mentioned available dates for a final hearing in May. The parties represented they had chosen Dora Salinas as a mediator and set a mediation date; counsel noted that waiving mediation prematurely could delay additional relief if the court’s docket required waiting months for a hearing.
The court’s instruction aims to make the father’s residential time enforceable by clarifying that the consolidated order incorporated the prior visitation schedule despite the later dismissal of the protection file. The transcript records a request to set potential final-hearing dates and an exchange about availability and docket scheduling.
