Parenting time -where paternity and divorces meet

Indiana now calls visitation parenting time. It is both visitation and a bit more. I suggest that you read the Indiana Parenting Time Guidelines. You can read them online by clicking here.

The rules contained in the Parenting Time Guidelines apply to both paternity cases and divorce cases. However, Indiana's Family Code contains a few statutes where the law applying to paternity cases differs from divorce cases:

1. Modification or denial of parenting time differs between non-paternity cases and paternity cases. Both statutes contain the following language: "The court may modify an order granting or denying parenting time rights whenever modification would serve the best interests of the child." But IC 31-14-14-2 which applies to paternity cases lacks this language from IC 31-17-4-2: "However, the court shall not restrict a parent's parenting time rights unless the court finds that the parenting time might endanger the child's physical health or significantly impair the child's emotional development.
2. The paternity statute lacks an analog to IC 31-17-4-8 Contempt and IC 31-17-4-9
   Additional remedies.
   

Thinking that paternity cases do not allow contempt to enforce parenting time/visitation rights goes beyond silly. See the case I report on in Contempt: New Court of Appeals case.