File under "C" for Contempt? and Consolidation?

[Misslegalese]

A bit about the case:

Father (lives in NJ, formerly in PA) and I (lives in PA) have shared legal custody, Father has primary physical, I have weekends. I am to notify Father before June 1 of which summmer month I want daughter. Jurisdiction is in Philadelphia.

Father and I went back to court on June 2, he is asking for more time with daughter (claims he doesn't get to see her during the week) and more time during the summer (if you have primary physical and I have one month, you already have the rest of the time, but nevermind...).

I informed Father on May 31 that I want JULY for my month. Father writes back by email that he wants our daughter to go to this scholarship-based pre-training for boarding school that runs from June 25th to July 30th; he hasn't informed me of this until the night before the court date. In the email, he states he couldn't inform me because of the "overwhelming application process where she was pushed to the top (to get in)" and that he has signed the paperwork already.

In court, he mentioned this and I told the Master (Master's conference) he is in violation of our shared legal custody agreement. The Master said "this is a legal custody issue" and after discussing a few other things, set a new date for the trial in November.

QUESTION: Should I file a contempt of custody agreement? Should this contempt filing be consolidated with the November date so I can bring up this issue there and show how he continues to violate our agreements? He was held in contempt 4 years ago when he decided not to bring my daughter to me for three weeks in a row. How does the judge look upon people who continues to ignore the orders? I want to get my daughter back because I believe his motives are not pure and he doesn't want me to foster a good relationship with my daughter (Gruber?). BTW, I sent her to live with her him because I wanted her to get out of the city and have better educational opportunities, not because I was on drugs or something.

[tbyte]

You probably cannot file for contempt unless he denies you visitation for the summer, which has not yet occured.
Does the custody agreement give you the sole decision on which month the child is with you, or does it require you and the father to come to a mutual agreement?
Since I doubt that you want to tell your daughter that she cannot attend this camp, I think the most expedient course of action would be to shift your visitation to August.

[Misslegalese]

Originally Posted by tbyte

You probably cannot file for contempt unless he denies you visitation for the summer, which has not yet occured.
Does the custody agreement give you the sole decision on which month the child is with you, or does it require you and the father to come to a mutual agreement?
Since I doubt that you want to tell your daughter that she cannot attend this camp, I think the most expedient course of action would be to shift your visitation to August.

Tbyte, I ALONE HAVE THE SOLE DECISION on what month she comes to stay with me. I have already taken out time from work for July. He never told me he was trying to get her in a boarding school, and we have shared legal custody. He told me the day before we went to court. That is violating the custody agreement, right? And typically, when a person violates the custody agreement, they should be held in contempt of court...would you agree?

I await your response.

[tbyte]

I'm not saying you shouldn't file contempt charges, but I wouldn't say your chances of success are very good.
You have to think about what he is going to throw back at you. For instance, he may claim that you are partially responsible for waiting until the day before summer break to let him know what month you wanted. He is going to argue that he was looking after the best interests of his daughter, that opportunities for summer activities tend to fill up fast, and that he could not wait until you had notified him before planning her summer schedule. It may also be that this is the only month that the program was offered, and that it is in the best interest of the girl to attend.
He could also call your bluff and say "OK, she does not get to go to camp." Where does that leave you in your relationship with your daughter? It leaves you as the bad parent who ruined her summer.
In my experience, courts consider contempt charges by one party against another to be little more than an annoyance, so unless you have an absolutely open and shut case, I don't think your chances are good. And if you are not successful, it will damage your reputation before the court.
Also, be aware that for a first contempt charge, even him the court finds in your favor they may not give him more than a slap on the hand as punishment. In my case, for violating my parental rights on six different occasions my ex was fined a whopping $50. It cost me $75 dollars to file the case!
So, and I say this based only upon my past experience, I don't think your chances are good and there are a lot of ways this could blow back in your face.