Parental Evaluation Not Medical Expense Under Parenting Plan

Tennessee child custody case summary on costs of parental evaluation.

Courtney P. Brunetz v. Neil A. Brunetz

The mother and father in this Hamilton County, Tennessee, case were the parents of two minor children, who were nine and five years old at the time of the 2013 divorce.  The parenting plan in the case named the mother as the primary residential parent, with the father receiving 120 days per year of parenting time.  At the father’s request, the court made modifications in 2017, and the father received 130 days of parenting time.  This prompted a first appeal to the Tennessee Court of Appeals.

While that appeal was pending, the mother filed a petition for contempt against the father.  She alleged that he had failed to pay private school tuition and medical bills as ordered.  She also alleged that he had failed to take the children to scheduled extracurricular activities as required by the parenting plan.

After a hearing, the trial court, Judge Don R. Ash, made a finding that the father was in contempt.  Among other things, the trial court ordered the father to pay the mother $4,000 in attorney’s fees.  The father brought an appeal to the Tennessee Court of Appeals, which generally ruled against most of the father’s arguments.  He did, however, prevail on one issue.  The father had been ordered to pay about $1,100 in medical bills.  However, this amount included a parental evaluation that had been ordered by the trial court.

Under the parenting plan, the father was required to pay a share of “medical, dental, and orthodontic expenses.”  But the appeals court agreed with the father that a court-ordered evaluation was not a “medical expense” of the children.  Therefore, it held that including this amount was error.

For these reasons, the Court of Appeals reversed that expense, but affirmed the remainder of the judgment and remanded the case.

No. E2018-01116-COA-R3-CV  (Tenn. Ct. App. Mar. 8, 2019).

See original opinion for exact language.  Legal citations omitted.

To learn more, see Modifying Custody & Parenting Plans.

See also Tennessee Parenting Plans and Child Support Worksheets: Building a Constructive Future for Your Family featuring examples of parenting plans and child support worksheets from real cases available on Amazon.com.