Under the revised Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act, the Court must provide an “expedited procedure for the enforcement of allocated parenting time.” In other words, if either of the parties is “abusing” allocated parenting time, the Court can have an expedited hearing to make sure both parties are following the parenting time schedule as set forth in the parenting plan. But what is an “abuse” of allocated parenting time?

Under the statute, a parent can abuse their parenting time by withholding parenting time from the other parent, or by simply failing to exercise his or her own parenting time. If the court finds by a preponderance of the evidence that a party has withheld parenting time from the other parent or a party has failed to exercise his or her own parenting time, the court can (1) impose additional terms and conditions on the parties' parenting time that is consistent with the previous allocation of parenting time; (2) require either or both parties to attend a parenting class; (3) require the parties to participate in individual and/or family counseling; (4) require the non-complying parent to post a cash bond or other security to ensure the non-complying follows the parenting time schedule in place; (5) require make up parenting time to occur for any missed parenting time; (6) hold the non-complying parent in contempt of court; (7) fine the non-complying parent an appropriate civil fine per incident of denied parenting time; (8) require the non-complying parent to reimburse the other parent for all reasonable costs incurred as a result of the violation of the parenting plan; and (9) any other appropriate remedy that the court finds to be in the best interests of the child.

If you feel that your former partner has abused his or her parenting time, contact our office for to see what options you may have.