Visitation Right
After a divorce, the father or mother who does not directly raise the child has the right to visit the child and the other party has the obligation to assist.
The way to exercise the right of visit shall be agreed upon by the parties at the time of divorce and the people's court may decide if the agreement cannot be reached. But when the people's court accepts a divorce case, the party shall require the court to deal with the visitation issue; otherwise, the people's court will not handle it in the divorce judgment.
Where the verdict of divorce does not involve the right to visit, the parties may also institute a separate lawsuit on the issue of the right to visit.
Generally speaking, the exercise of the right of visit requires the following elements:
(1) After the divorce, the children are raised directly by one side;
(2) The party claiming this right is not the parent who has been directly living with the children;
(3) The exercise of the right to visit will not harm the children's physical or mental health.
The legal guardians of minor children and other guardian who owes a duty of guardianship or education responsibilities may ask for suspending visitation rights of one party should any of the following things occur. The lawyer shall collect evidence to prove that there is a legal reason for such suspension for the sack of the child’s physical and mental health.
1.
The other party is a person without legal capacity or a person with limited capacity;
2.
The other party is suffering from severe infectious diseases or other serious diseases, which may jeopardize the health of their children.
3.
The other party committed criminal acts against the children or committing a criminal act in the exercise of their visiting rights, thereby impairing the interests of the children;
4.
The affections between the other party and the child have been seriously deteriorated and the child strongly refuses the other party to visit his/her;
5.
Other situations that may adversely affect the child's physical or mental health. When the father or mother who had the right to visit places a request for resumption of his visit, his lawyer shall prove that the situation which was detrimental to the physical and mental health of the child has completely disappeared.
In the case of a rightful exercise of visitation right, if the party living with the child refuses to assist, the court may only take measures like detention or fines against the defaulting party, the court cannot enforce against the child for exercising such visitation right.
