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My husband and I are contesting a modification for support from child support enforcement (they calculated arrearages that do not exist based on current divorce papers).

Can we make a counterclaim in our answer for a modification of visitation?

CP lives in Georgia and standard visitation is awarded however, we live in Florida and cannot get the children every other weekend. CP refuses to allow children to visit our home in Florida and when we are in Ga will not allow us to see the children when it is "convenient" to us.

Can we file this as a counterclaim since we are going to a hearing or do we have to file this separately?

We are trying to limit the travel expenses for these hearings and are representing ourselves since we do not have the money for an attorney.

You may not have that option. It appears in most instances once a divorce is finalized, that later child support and custody issues are heard in separate courts. Sometimes in a custody case, one party or the other may bring may bring up visitation or child support issues in a related manner.

I definitely understand the desire to cut back on travel expenses and trying at least to get two separate hearings done in a day. It's even worse when we are all set to go, even get there, only to find out the hearings are cancelled or postponed due to an emergency, illness, no-shows, etc.

Best you can do is contact the court clerk and ask first if the court hearings and judges are separate for the two issues. Then follow the instructions from there. If your child support hearing is far enough down the road, it's possible they may be able to set the visitation hearing the same day or within a day or two of the other, enabling you to extend the stay a bit.

You might also want to request a telephone hearing for the child support issue, and save the travel for the visitation/custody issue.

"Can we make a counterclaim in our answer for a modification of visitation?...Can we file this as a counterclaim since we are going to a hearing or do we have to file this separately?"

I believe that if the claim is all about CS, then you can only argue about CS and the counterclaim must be about CS. Visitation/custody is separate and in your case, complex issue to be resolved. Therefore, you may have to file a separate claim.

"CP lives in Georgia and standard visitation is awarded however, we live in Florida and cannot get the children every other weekend."

When the every other weekend was granted, you and CP must have lived nearby or in the same state. If your husband moved, then it's his fault for unabling to excercise EOW visitation unless he worked out a deal with the CP, OR asking the court for a modification.

"CP refuses to allow children to visit our home in Florida"

If your husband can't pick up and return the kids within weekend visitation limit, then she has the right. Also, if the order prohibited taking kids out of state, then your husband can't do anything about it. Your husband needs to petition the court for a modification of visitation arrangement to accommodate this change.

"when we are in Ga will not allow us to see the children when it is "convenient" to us."

Morally, it's not right for her to alienate the kids, but legally, she has the right if "what convenient" to you but would not be "convenient" to her. Your husband's "convenient" must also be within what the order allowed regarding current visitation schedule. Another word, he just can't show up whenever he wants or convenient to him to demand visitation.

"We are trying to limit the travel expenses for these hearings and are representing ourselves since we do not have the money for an attorney."

Sorry, but he should have thought about this before the move (assumed that he was the one who moved away).

I'm not sure how it is in GA, but my case was an interstate case. It ended up that custodial jurisdiction resides with the state where I live with the child and CS jurisdiction resides in the state where the divorce was actually litigated. And, in fact, had things gone to trial there would have been two trials (one for custody and one for the divorce which includes all financials including CS). When its time for CS mod, such as when the spousal support ends, the filing will be done by my attorney in the state where the Ex resides. If there are custodial/visitation issues then the mod or show cause will be filed where I am.

As far as the visitation is concerned, how far apart are you? I mean it is conceivable that one could live in GA and not be that far from someone in FL. Heck, I don't live in GA or Ala but am a little less than 5 hours from parts of FL. When you say convenient, do you give her notice as to when you want to see the kids? If visitation is ordered for every other, in GA, then conceivably you could visit them every other weekend. I know of one situation where the mom/child live in a New England state and dad lives in the Commonwealth of VA. Dad has visitation every other weekend and he DOES exercise it (to the point of exhausting the poor child with the travel time and methods). The parents split the travel costs.

Were I you I'd have dad file for a mod based on the distance and move the monthly visit to once a month with longer times of possession during major times out of school (winter break, spring break and summer break). My custody situation is a long distance one and this seems to be working for the child. I'm sure NCP doesn't care for all the travel that he is responsible for, but hey, that is what was agreed to in our pre-trial settlement. We actually split up and spelled out the long holiday weekends as well (labor day, memorial day, president day). NCP, however, does not currently get a large amount of consecutive possession time in the summer. That is always subject to change though based on several factors.

Oh and I'd look real close at the GA Child Support Statutes. From my little bit of research it appears they had an overhaul in '07 and went to what appears to be an almost straight income share model.

You need to have the visitation changed to different blocks of time (longer) in a separate hearing. Who moved? This can be a factor in whether some compensation is possible. In most cases, the party that moved away can be ordered to pay some or all of the traveling expenses, with ability to pay a big factor.