Survey: Torts Arising Out of Interference with Custody and Visitation

This is a link to an article that focuses on tort remedies that are available to parents when other parents or third parties interfere with custodial or visitation rights.

The article begins with a discussion of the remedy that is nearly universally available, the tort of intentional infliction of emotional distress resulting from the denial of custody. Next, the article discusses the somewhat less popular but easier to prove tort of custodial interference. In the subsequent section, the article takes a detour by focusing on the rights of parents who have been awarded visitation, not custody. In some jurisdictions, parents have been awarded damages when the custodial parents or others deny the noncustodial parents their right to visitation, or otherwise cause the children to reject the noncustodial parents.

[ED. NOTE]
For the nonprofessional, and perhaps even for them, these legal survey articles are a tough slog. One takeaway a custodial parent can get from even a quick read is how far afield from the traditional concept of “law” matters related to child custody really are.

What is “emotional distress” anyway? How does one interfere with a relationship? How much interference is enough to trigger a lawsuit? Where is the line between reasonable care and interference?

It seems that child custody law is much more about psychological babble than about legal reasoning.