Family Law Service Learning Case Summaries - Summer Term 2015 - Charlene O’Keefe

Family Law Service Learning Case Summaries - Summer Term 2015 

Charlene O’Keefe

LA265 Unit 7 Assignment

Link for opinion: https://casetext.com/case/blair-v-blair-44

Minnesota Appeals Court Upholds District in Modifying Parenting Time

The Minnesota Court of Appeals held in Blair v. Blair, A12-1154 (Minn. Ct. App. Mar 11, 2013) that the father could not alter the parenting time agreement originally agreed upon without using the endangerment issue. The original custody order was for joint physical custody, but the father was spending the same amount of time with his children as if he had only been granted basic visitation rights.

In asking for an increase in parenting time to a 50/50 arrangement, the father was denied based upon the effect it would have on the mother’s parenting time. Mother’s parenting time would have been decreased from upwards of 80% to only 50%. This time change also would have included a change in primary residence for the children who had spent the past 5 years visiting father on weekends and Wednesdays.

After the father relocated to be closer to the children he petitioned the court for a change in the parenting plan. Because the parenting plan used language that the agreement of the parents could supersede the “best interest of the child” theory, the father was denied his request for a change to the parenting plan.

The court held that visitation would not be changed and the only recourse for the father was to prove some type of endangerment existed should the current plan continue.

Labels for the post: child visitation, parenting time, parenting plan