Communication during visitation exchanges

Since I often represent clients in high-conflict visitation disputes, my usual advice is to not say A WORD to the other parent at the time the child is exchanged for the visits.  Even brief conversations 'over the heads' of the children during an exchange can lead to an argument.  Or, if one parent doesn't care about involving the children in the conflict, he or she can push for answers, and the other side (wanting to avoid conflict in front ofthe children) might feel he or she has to give in.  ('What do you mean you want to talk about this later -- I need an answer right now!' the one parent might say.)


When parents are in conflict -- as shown by their needing attorneys and the court system to decide things - I advise clients to communicate with the other parent by email only, so there is a good trail of the conversations, should there ever be a need to discuss those in court.  I don't really favor text messages, since they are individual messages and don't have the previous message attached to the bottom (as emails usually do) are much less useful.

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