IS PERMISSION NEEDED TO RELOCATE A CHILD WITHIN A STATE?
You do not necessarily need permission; all the law requires is that you send a notice. There are plenty of situations in which 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 more complex case to litigate. So overall, no, you do not need permission; you have to provide notice. However, if the other side objects within the 30-day window, you would 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 to object. At that point, the analysis will still go before the court to determine, “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 your move is going to necessitate a change in school districts for the child, then it is big enough that you could appropriately say you will eventually need permission. Sometimes acceptance comes through 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. Oftentimes, 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 get a divorce by themselves, even with kids. I have spent countless hours cleaning up messes regarding pro se divorces, because they think they've got everything down right, but there are so many holes and ambiguities in the plans they've come up with that there is no clear answer to 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, make sure everything is clear, and address everything from contacting the other party to handling the other party’s desire to move residences to what to do when there is a conflict between your schedules.