Custodia

Any limitation to the other parent’s contact with your child should protect you and the child from physical, sexual, or emotional abuse that could result from contact with them.¹ The types of limitations that a judge can put on an abusive parent’s residential time include, but are not limited to:

• supervised visitation between the child and the parent;
• conditioning the visitation on a parent’s completion of an evaluation or treatment for things like:
  • domestic violence perpetration;
  • substance use disorder;
  • mental health; or
  • anger management; or
• no contact between the child and the parent, if the judge believes that the other limitations would not protect the child from harm or abuse.¹

If none of these limitations are included in the order, the judge must provide a written explanation establishing that:

• contact between your child and the abusive parent will not cause physical, sexual, or emotional abuse or harm to the child; or
• the chance that the harmful or abusive conduct will happen again is so remote that it would not be in the child’s best interests to limit residential time with the abusive parent.²

The judge must also consider the following factors and include them in the written explanation:  

• any current risk the abusive parent poses to your or your child’s physical or psychological well-being;
• if the other parent has demonstrated they can and will prioritize the child’s physical and psychological well-being;
• if the other parent has and will continue to follow court orders;
• if the other parent has genuinely acknowledged past harm and is committed to avoiding future harm; and
• the other parent’s compliance with any court-ordered treatment.³

If the other parent is not abusive but lives with someone who poses a danger, see If a parent who is not abusive lives with someone who committed domestic violence or a sex offense, can that parent get residential parenting time? to see what limitations the judge can order.

¹ R.C.W. § 26.09.191(4)(d)
² R.C.W. § 26.09.191(6)(a)
³ R.C.W. § 26.09.191(6)(c)