IS PERMISSION NEEDED TO RELOCATE A CHILD WITHIN A STATE?
You do not necessarily need permission; all the law requires is for you to send a notice. There are plenty of situations where a party sends the notice, and the other side does not timely respond or object. After the fact, when that thirty-day window expires, then that other side loses and it is a much harder case to litigate. So overall, no, you do not need permission, you just have to provide notice. However, if the other side then objects within the thirty-day window, you would then need permission.
If it is a situation where you are moving just to a different subdivision, or an area still relatively close in distance, and the other side objects, they need a really good reason for objecting. At that point in time, the analysis is still going to go in front of the court as to, “Why do you want to move?” It is probably something as simple as, “We need a bigger house,” or maybe they need a smaller house because two of the kids went off to college, and now they don’t need as much space.
As long as there is a good reason to move, then the judge will look at the other side and say, “Why are you objecting?” You better have a good reason, because otherwise, the judge is going to not only potentially ratify the move, but he could potentially request sanctions for having to go to court over an unreasonable objection to a move, with no valid basis. If it is a situation where your move is going to necessitate a change in school districts for the child potentially, then it is big enough to where you could appropriately say you will eventually need permission. Sometimes acceptance can come by way of acquiescence. In other words, you send the notice, the other side does not object, you move, and then everybody goes about their life.
The Importance Of Retaining A Family Law Attorney
When you are looking for a family lawyer, you probably want to find somebody who practices daily and has a lot of experience in that field since it can be very complex. It is also one of those fields that people seem to think, “Oh, this is easy. I’m just going to do a simple divorce, or a simple custody or parenting time change.” No, it is not nearly as simple as that for a person who does not do it every day. If you are not going to retain me, at least find somebody who does practice family law daily.
It is one thing if you want to divide your marital estate. If you do not care how much you might be stacking on the monetary breakdown that is one thing. Often times, people try to do pro se divorces when it’s just asset or debt related, but it’s different when kids are involved. However, it is not uncommon for people to try to do divorces by themselves, even with kids. I have spent countless hours cleaning up messes regarding pro se divorces, because they think they got everything down right, but there are so many holes and ambiguities in the plans they came up with, that there is no clear answer in what they’ve stated.
That is why you have an attorney who knows what they are doing, and will draft a good parenting plan, which is usually ten to twelve pages. We will address all those little caveats in there, and make sure everything is clear and as far as everything from contacting the other party, what to do regarding the other parties’ desire to move residences, and what do you do when there is a conflict between your schedules.