It shouldn’t. A judge will tell you (a) paying of child support and (b) a visitation schedule have nothing to do with each other. The problem with that philosophy might be the judge hates getting involved with taking sides between two parents. This is especially true if neither of you are following all of the Court’s orders. Courts can quickly hate getting dragged into an exacting fight…when neither side can justify their actions as being “in the best interests” of their child.
 
As we’ll discuss, hopefully your decision to not ‘allow’ a summer visit has nothing to do with the non-payment of child support.
 
In short, this could turn into a mine field. For example, if the father can prove he spent legal costs, money for a planned vacation, or lost income because of not seeing the child, you may face legal costs for an enforcement hearing on contempt. And in that sense, yes, it might have an effect on what happens financially (albeit indirectly). Depending on your ability to pay for legal help to settle this, there may be a more affordable option. You can try http://www.lonestarlegal.org/.
 
The Duty To Follow A Payment Support Order
 
Let’s start with the strong point on your side. There are plenty of Texas cases discussing why support has to be paid, even if there are important disagreements over visitation, between parents.
 
I’m not sure if you are being helped by Texas Support enforcement (https://www. oag.state .tx.us/cs/index.shtml) or have actually filed a petition with the Texas family court. There is also an option for you to work with a private credit collection agency to try and get support… http://www.supportcollectors.com/resources_texas.php. As with any private service you contact online, however, be careful not to pay any upfront fees or to disclose private data before being sure they are legitimate.
 
Here are also some links to forms you can use to encourage your Ex husband to comply with his payment obligation…such as license suspension rules (https://www. oag.state.tx.us/ AG_Publications/pdfs/cs_faq.pdf) or income withholding forms, here: http://texaslaw help.org/resource/do-it-yourself-court-forms-free?ref=YYUkU. The Texas AG has also listed other tools to get past due support, from suspending a passport to seizing bank accounts and property: https://www.oag.state. tx.us/agency/weeklyag/ 2006/0406csd.pdf.
 
Your Reasons For Preventing Any Visitation?
 
I’m assuming there is already a visitation order in place. Obviously, you’re under much less legal risk if you only have an informal agreement with the Ex, to try and have certain scheduled visits, at certain times.
 
You may have even have had good reasons to try and prevent the visitation. The visit may have meant some risk to the child. What can help you is to have evidence of the risks, and being able to present those facts in a reasonable way. This may also include some apologizing to the court for not trying to get an emergency order, and not trying to make elaborate excuses for something you regret doing. Here’s the law to look out for:
 
(e) The movant may allege repeated past violations of the order and that future violations of a similar nature may occur before the date of the hearing. http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/FA/htm/FA.157.htm
 
This may mean you have a serious problem, if this is not the first time you might have prevented a visitation without telling the court why. There are also court decisions where a visitation was blocked by the mother, but in one case the mother also filed for a change in child custody to restrict the father’s contact with the child. In answer, the mother was charged with contempt for not following the visitation order. http://caselaw. findlaw.com/ar-supreme-court/1383569.html.
 
One result if you were charged and convicted with contempt would be the chance of paying your Ex’s court costs, attorney’s fees, and any other damages associated with the contempt. It is possible (but not very likely) you could even go to jail.