I'm not violating the order, right? RYAN, please?

Quick backstory: I have sole legal/physical custody of my son. His father is a drug addict and the courts ordered that it is in his best interests to live solely with me, I make all decisions, and his father gets visitation at a supervised location if he meets certain requirements. The court also adopted the parenting plan that I filled out. In the parenting plan, I indicated that the means of contact with our son would be via telephone (he can call every day) and by mail/email (again, he can do this every day). The court also ordered that he pay the premiums on our son’s health insurance.

My ex has not been paying the premiums. A few months ago, the premium went up to $133/month (which is still VERY cheap compared to other insurance plans). I notified him via email that it was going up, and to what amount, and when. He responded that he would pay it. Each month since, I have sent him an email with the amount of uncovered medical expenses (to be split 50/50) and the amount that he was now delinquent on the insurance premium. He ignored each of those emails. Of course, I paid the insurance premium (I have always paid it), so that his insurance is not cut off. I can no longer afford to continue to pay the insurance premium AND all of my bills, and the only bill that is not a necessity is my cell phone, and the cell phone bill is comparable, but a bit less than the insurance. So, I emailed my ex to let him know that if I did not have insurance premium reimbursement from him in 2 weeks, that I would have no choice but to suspend service on my cell phone because my priority is that my son has insurance, not that I have a working cell phone.

He acknowledged receiving the email, but did not send any money. So, I did exactly what I told him I would have to do, and I had my service suspended. He is now up in arms, telling me that I am “required” to let him talk to our son on the phone. (and not that it matters, but he only calls once, Maybe twice per week anyway) But, the way I see it, the parenting plan says that he can also send him mail and emails as a means of communication, and as long as I don’t shut that off, he has a way to communicate with our son, and therefore, am in compliance with the order. Not to mention, if HE were following the court order, he would be paying the insurance, and this would be a non-issue. (Funny how he likes to bring up the court order when it’s something he wants, but conveniently forgets about the court order when it’s something that he is to be responsible for).

So, in short, by cutting off my cell phone (out of necessity, and due to his lack of compliance with the court order), am I still in compliance with the order since he still has access to our son by way of email and mail? I can’t imagine a judge would be too mad at me for putting my son’s health first and that the only reason I had to suspend service was because of his father’s lack of responsibility.

Not having access to emergency services (911) may not be a good thing for you either. There are usually free legal services for low income people in most counties, you may want to look at having court order enforced.

Cell phones with no service can still dial 911, I believe…)

Bumping so an attorney can answer, please. =)

I’d say unless the order specifically says you have to make your child available by cell phone then you should be fine.