I want our son to see a child psychologist but my ex opposes the idea. Can I take him to see one anyway?
It depends on what your custody agreement says.
Yes, it depends on what the court order says. Must you both agree on medical decisions? If so, what does it say about how to resolve an issue if the parties are not in agreement? Depending on the wording, you may need to seek court intervention to allow the appointments so you are not in contempt of a court order.
Similar situation. Our separation agreement states that we split equally the cost of reasonable unreimbursed medical, dental, orthodontic, vision and like expenses. And that an in network provider is to be used unless emergency or appropriate specialist not available through the network.
I assume child psychologist falls under medical, or like, expenses. But our provider is not in network and there is nothing stated about how many visits per month I need to help pay for. If the psychologist for instance says they need to be seen several times a month this could get expensive and out of budget.
How do we define what is reasonable ? No doubt this will be a source of disagreement.
If you want the child to go to the out-of-network psychologist, and you know the other party is going to balk at the expense, you should be prepared to pay for this expense until the other party can be ordered to pay through the use of a motion for contempt. Whether the expense is reasonable will be left to the judge to decide, and the judge will likely take any diagnoses relating to the treatment, the recommendations from treating physicians, and whether a comparable in-network provider is available (as well as other factors) into consideration when making his or her determination.