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FAMILY COURT DOES NOT HAVE THE AUTHORITY TO ORDER COUNSELING AS A PREREQUISITE FOR FATHER’S VISITATION.

The Fourth Department, after finding father’s physical abuse of mother in the children’s presence justified a modification of custody, determined Family Court did not have the authority to order counseling as a prerequisite to father’s visitation:

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We agree with the father, however, that the court erred to the extent that it ordered that future modification of the father’s visitation is conditioned on completion of a parenting class. “[A]lthough a court may include a directive to obtain counseling as a component of a custody or visitation order, the court does not have the authority to order such counseling as a prerequisite to custody or visitation” … . Thus, “the court lack[s] the authority to condition any future application for modification of [a parent’s] visitation on her [or his] participation in . . . counseling” … . Nevertheless, the court may order that a parent’s completion of counseling and compliance therewith “would constitute a substantial change of circumstances for any future petition for modification of the order” … , provided that “[n]othing in the order prevents the [parent] from supporting a modification petition with a showing of a different change of circumstances” … . We therefore modify the order by striking the provision requiring the father to complete a parenting class as a prerequisite for modification of visitation and substituting therefor a provision directing that he comply with that condition as a component of supervised visitation. Matter of Allen v Boswell, 2017 NY Slip Op 03312, 4th Dept 4-28-17

FAMILY LAW (FAMILY COURT DOES NOT HAVE THE AUTHORITY TO ORDER COUNSELING AS A PREREQUISITE FOR FATHER’S VISITATION)/VISITATION (FAMILY LAW, FAMILY COURT DOES NOT HAVE THE AUTHORITY TO ORDER COUNSELING AS A PREREQUISITE FOR FATHER’S VISITATION)/COUNSELING (FAMILY LAW, VISITATION, FAMILY COURT DOES NOT HAVE THE AUTHORITY TO ORDER COUNSELING AS A PREREQUISITE FOR FATHER’S VISITATION)

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