From Our Perspective: Emergency Motion to Restrict Custody

Robinson & Henry’s knowledgeable attorneys give their professional insight in “From Our Perspective” where we take a closer look at successful outcomes achieved by our attorneys. We’ll also share our legal expertise on other cases and legal issues in Colorado.

An emergency motion to restrict parenting time can be a parent’s worst nightmare. These cases are high-stakes and often emotionally charged. In this episode, Family Law Partner Andrew Hug discusses how he helped a client protect his parental rights.

The father found himself on the receiving end of a sudden and serious allegation from his child’s mother. Hug presented a compelling case to the court that our client posed no imminent danger to his child, and the court agreed. The judge dismissed what amounted to false allegations made by the child’s mother. 

As a result, the father was awarded make-up parenting time, and the parenting plan was adjusted to be more equitable. 

For parents facing similar challenges, it’s important to seek legal assistance quickly to make sure you can gather the necessary evidence and secure your rights.

Past results afford no guarantee of future results; each matter is different and must be judged on its own merits. Facts are those of an actual Robinson & Henry case. 

Question: Andrew, thank you for joining me. Tell me more about our client and why they reached out to you. 

Andrew: In this particular case, I represented the father, and I had a previous relationship with them because I had represented him in the divorce. Unfortunately, it was one of those situations where the divorce had been fairly contentious. The mother had continued this by filing an emergency motion to restrict the father’s parenting time, and so that’s why he reached out to us. 

Question: What criteria does the court use to decide on restricting parenting time? 

Andrew: When there’s an emergency motion to restrict parenting time, it’s a very high standard. The courts take it very seriously. They look at is there an imminent harm to the child, meaning is the child in danger of physical harm or emotional harm and is that an imminent threat? So it’s not something that’s going to be 3 or 4 months down the line, but is there an immediate threat to the child.

Question: What types of challenges do you face in these types of cases? And tell me about the outcome of this case. 

Andrew: In all types of cases where there’s an emergency motion, the biggest challenge is time. Because it’s very serious the courts want to make sure that the issues get resolved quickly, meaning that if there is a danger to the child, you want to make sure that the child is out of that situation as fast as possible.

If it’s false allegations, you don’t want someone’s parenting time being taken away. Because once the motion is granted, that parent doesn’t get any parenting time until there’s a hearing. 

It’s very important for the courts to resolve these issues as quickly as possible. The challenge that that presents to us as attorneys is that it limits the amount of time we have to gather evidence, and limits the amount of time we have to get witnesses. It really puts us in a time crunch to make sure we present the best case for our client.

Question: And tell me about the outcome, how this case turned out for our client? 

Andrew: This is fortunately a good outcome for our client. Number one, the court found that there was no imminent harm being posed by the father. There was nothing to the allegations that mother was making, which we knew at the time that it was always good to hear the court say that. 

Additionally, father was granted make-up parenting time for the parenting time that he missed, due to the restriction temporarily until we had a hearing. And the court ended up changing the parenting plan in a way that was more equitable towards the father in the long run.

Question: And if someone is in a similar situation, what advice do you have for a parent facing this situation? 

Andrew: Well, really as I talked about before, the most important thing is time. Because you are very, very limited in time, it is important that you reach out to an attorney as soon as possible because every day that goes by is a day that you’re missing out on gathering that evidence, on getting those witnesses and preparing to defend your rights as a parent.