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Common Questions about Changing Parenting Time
Contents
These are common questions about changing parenting time.
Questions about Going to Court to Change Parenting Time
If you want to ask the court to change parenting time, you can use our Do-It-Yourself Motion to Change Parenting Time tool to create the forms you need.
Parenting time can be changed if there is a change in circumstances or proper cause for the judge to reconsider parenting time, and if it is in the best interests of the child to change parenting time.
If you are really trying to change custody instead of parenting time, it will be harder to prove proper cause or a change in circumstances. If you want a significant change in parenting time, you may need to file a motion to change custody instead.
To learn more, go to the I Need to Change Parenting Time toolkit.
It will cost at least $100 to file a motion to change custody or parenting time.
If you receive public assistance or are unable to pay the fee, use the Do-It-Yourself Fee Waiver tool to ask the court to waive it. If you get public assistance, the court must waive your fee. If not, a judge will review your affidavit and decide whether to waive it.
Yes. To get your court fees waived, you must file a Fee Waiver Request. This form tells the court that you can't afford to pay the fees in your case, and it asks for a waiver. You can use the Do-It-Yourself Fee Waiver tool to complete the affidavit.
You must serve the motion on the other parent at least nine days before the hearing date, if you serve by mail. You do this by mailing the motion to the other parent at the address listed on your other court documents. If the other parent has a lawyer, you must mail the papers to the lawyer instead.
If you serve the papers by giving them to the other parent in person, you must do this at least seven days before the hearing.
On your remaining copies of the Motion Regarding Parenting Time, complete the certificate of mailing. File two copies at the court clerk’s office. Keep the other copy for your records.
Read the papers carefully
It is important to understand what the other party is asking for. It is also important to know the date, time, and place of the court hearing.
Pay attention to deadlines
There are strict deadlines in court cases. If you decide to file a Response to the Motion Regarding Custody or Parenting Time, file it with the court at least 3 days before the hearing. You must mail it to the other party at least five days before the hearing, or give it to them in person at least three days before the hearing.
Decide how you want to respond
If the other parent files a Motion Regarding Custody or Parenting Time, you can choose to do nothing. If you do nothing, the judge may change the court order without any input from you.
This may be fine if you agree with the other parent’s proposed change. But you should consider filing a response and attending the hearing if you want to give input about custody or parenting time. If the custody or parenting time order changes, it may also affect child support. Even if you don’t file a response, you can still participate in the court hearing.
After you file and serve your motion, the other parent may file a response. If you receive a response, read it carefully.
Unless you and the other party agree about changing parenting time, there will be a hearing in front of a judge or the Friend of the Court.
At the hearing, you will first need to prove that there is proper cause or a change in circumstances. If you’re asking only to change, add, or remove a parenting time condition, this means showing that the current order is no longer in your child’s best interests. For any other parenting time change, proper cause or change in circumstances can be harder to prove.
If the requested change will affect how often and how long parenting time occurs, but won’t affect the custody arrangement, then even normal changes in your child’s life can be enough to qualify as a change in circumstances.
However, if the requested parenting time change will affect the current custody arrangement, the change must be significant. You must show that the change in circumstances is more than just normal life changes in the life of your child. You must also provide evidence that the change has affected your child or is very likely to affect your child.
If changing parenting time will affect custody, proper cause must be related to at least one of the 12 “best interests of the child” factors. To learn more, read The “Best Interests of the Child” Factors. It must also have (or be likely to have) a significant effect on the child. A change in circumstances is similar to proper cause. If something that happened after the judge signed the last custody order qualifies as a change in circumstances, it usually will also be proper cause. The reverse is also true.
If you can’t prove proper cause or a change in circumstances, your current order will stay in place. If you can prove proper cause or a change in circumstances, the judge will change parenting time if you can show that doing so is in the child’s best interests.
If you are planning to move out of Michigan with your children, you must file a Motion to Change Domicile. You may also need to file a Motion to Change Domicile to ask the judge for permission to move within Michigan. Depending on your situation, you may have to do this if you are planning to move with your children more than 100 miles from where you lived when your family case was filed. Visit the I Need to Move with My Children toolkit to learn more.
There must be proper cause or a change in circumstances since the last parenting time order was entered for the judge to reconsider parenting time. To learn more, read How a Judge Decides a Motion to Change Parenting Time.
There is no minimum time you have to wait since the entry of the last parenting time order. However, if your only reason for filing this motion is that you disagree with the parenting time order, the judge will likely deny your motion.
Either parent can file a motion to change parenting time in an existing family law case. There must already be a parenting time order or judgment in the case. The case could be a divorce, separate maintenance, custody, paternity, or family support case.
No. Parenting time can't be limited to enforce child support.
If you are a person with a disability and have to go to court, you can ask the court to provide you with an accommodation so you can fully participate in the court activity.
To make your request, use the Do-It-Yourself Request for Accommodations tool and mail or deliver the form to the court administrator in the court where the activity will take place.
You should mail or deliver your Request for Accommodations as early as possible so the court can consider it and arrange for the accommodation(s) if it grants your request. If you don’t file your request before the court activity starts, but the activity is on-going (like a hearing that lasts more than a day), file your request as soon as you can.
Examples of accommodations that may be available are:
- Interpreter for people who are deaf (such as a sign language interpreter)
- Assistive listening device
- Handicap accessibility (such as use of a service animal)
- Other accommodations depending on your need
Each court has an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Coordinator. You can find your court’s ADA Coordinator using the Directories page of the Michigan Courts One Court of Justice website.
Questions about How Parenting Time Is Decided
If your order has a specific parenting time schedule, the judge must approve a change in the schedule even when the other parent agrees with the change. In this situation, you can ask the judge to sign a proposed order without filing a motion. You can use the Do-It-Yourself Motion to Change Parenting Time tool to create the proposed order you need. There is no court hearing unless the judge requests one.
If your current order is for reasonable parenting time (without a specific schedule) and the other parent agrees to change parenting time, you do not have to file anything with the court. However, you can always file a Motion to Change Parenting Time if you want to get a court order with a specific schedule.
Yes. Children have the legal right to be financially supported by both parents. A parent can’t avoid paying child support by giving up custody or parenting time rights.
Even if you voluntarily gave up your parental rights, or if your parental rights were involuntarily terminated, it is possible that you would still be required to pay child support.
Changing custody or parenting time can be complicated if a child's parent is on active military duty. It may be difficult to find and serve papers on a service member stationed overseas. There are also state and federal laws that give people on active duty extra protections in civil cases.
If a parent is deployed on military duty when the motion to change custody or parenting time is filed, the judge may stay (halt) the proceeding if either parent asks.
Generally, while a parent is deployed, a judge may not change custody or parenting time from what it was at the date of deployment. The only exception is when the judge finds there is clear and convincing evidence that it is in the child’s best interests to change custody or parenting time. In this case, the judge can enter a temporary order.
If the judge signs a temporary order, the deployed parent must notify the court within 30 days of when the deployment ends. The judge will then reinstate the parenting time order that was in effect just before the deployment.
The other parent may file a motion to change custody or parenting time after the deployed parent returns. The judge cannot consider a parent’s absence due to deployment when weighing the best interests of a child.
If you are filing to change custody or parenting time and the child’s other parent is on active military duty, you may want to hire a lawyer. Use the Guide to Legal Help to find lawyers and legal services in your area.
If your child’s other parent is incarcerated by the State of Michigan, let the court know. Contact the Department of Corrections to confirm the parent’s prison number and location. In your motion, state the following facts:
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That the other parent is incarcerated
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The other parent’s prison number
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The other parent’s location
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That a telephonic hearing is required by Michigan Court Rule 2.004
The court must allow the other parent to participate in the hearing by phone, teleconference, or in person.
You must notify your child’s other parent about the motion hearing even if he or she is in prison. Mail the papers to the prison and complete the certificate of mailing on the remaining copies of your motion. File two copies with the court clerk’s office. Keep the other copy for your records.
Domestic relations mediation is a process that the court can use to help resolve contested issues in a family law case. The mediator is a neutral person who helps you and the other party work out an agreement in your case. You could be referred to mediation if you agree to it or if the judge orders it. You and the other party will pay the mediator a fee.
Some cases are not appropriate for mediation. Your case might be excused from mediation for any of the following reasons:
- You or the other party have a personal protection order against the other
- Your children have been abused or neglected
- There has been domestic violence in your relationship, unless you both have attorneys at the mediation sessions
- You or the other party is unable to negotiate for themselves at the mediation, unless you both have attorneys at the mediation sessions
- There is reason to believe that the health or safety of one or both of you will be put at risk by mediation
The Friend of the Court (FOC) is part of the family division of the circuit court. The FOC helps the court in cases involving custody, parenting time, and child support. Some of the duties the FOC performs are:
- Investigating and issuing recommendations about custody, parenting time, and child support
- Helping the parties settle disputes during and after their case
- Providing enforcement services on existing custody, parenting time, and support orders
To learn more, read Friend of the Court Overview.
If a Friend of the Court (FOC) referee issues a recommendation in your case and you do not file an objection within 21 days after you are served, the recommendation can become an order. However, the judge is not bound by a FOC recommendation and can choose not to make it an order.
You may be able to opt out of FOC services in your case if both you and the other party agree to opt out.
To learn more, read Friend of the Court Overview.
Questions about Domestic Violence and Parenting Time
Yes. Domestic violence is serious. It is one of 12 factors the judge must consider when making custody and parenting time decisions. However, the judge might not necessarily give special weight to the domestic violence factor.
If your child's other parent has abused you, it may be a good idea to hire a lawyer. If you have low income, you may qualify for free legal services. Whether you have low income or not, use the Guide to Legal Help to find lawyers and legal services in your area.
Yes. Domestic violence is one of 12 factors the judge must consider when making custody and parenting time decisions. This is true even if:
- The violence was not directed at the children; and
- The children did not witness the abuse.
Children can be harmed by domestic violence even if it’s not directed against them.
The court can consider domestic violence even if your children didn’t witness it.
If the other party in your case has a court order giving them parenting time, you must follow the order. You must do this unless:
- The judge changes the order, or
- Another court order prohibits parenting time (such as a Personal Protection Order)
You can prepare a motion asking the judge to change parenting time using the Do-It-Yourself Motion to Change Parenting Time tool. You can prepare a Petition for Personal Protection Order using our Do-It-Yourself Personal Protection Order (PPO) tool.
Supervised parenting time is where children spend time with a parent, supervised by another adult. A judge may order supervised parenting time if a parent is not responsible or is a risk to the children.
The supervisor could be a grandparent, other relative, friend, or other court-appointed supervisor. If a parent is a threat or danger to the other parent but not to the children, a judge may still order supervised parenting time. Or, a judge may allow unsupervised parenting time but require that pick-up and drop-off be supervised or done by a third party.
It depends. If you feel safe working out the parenting time schedule with the other parent, it’s probably okay to have a flexible schedule. Otherwise, you may need a specific schedule.
Consider asking for supervised parenting time if:
- You're worried about your safety;
- You're worried about your children’s safety; or
- The other parent has threatened to keep your children from you.
The court will appoint the supervisor, but you may want to provide ideas for possible supervisors. Examples include:
- A visitation center
- A domestic violence agency
- A grandparent
- Another relative
- A friend
Parenting time may also be safer for you if you exchange your children in a public place.
Your children most likely have a bond with their other parent. This may be true even if the other parent has been violent towards you. Think about what type of parenting time is best under all of the circumstances – not just based on how your children feel.
If there is a court order for unsupervised parenting time, you must follow it. You must do this unless the judge changes it or another court order prohibits it. If you think unsupervised visitation isn’t safe, consider talking to a lawyer.
If you need a lawyer and have low income, you may qualify for free legal help. You can use the Guide to Legal Help to look for legal help in your area. Your local domestic violence shelter may also be able to help you find a lawyer.