RELOCATION OF A CHILD (Move way)
The standard provision in any permanent custody order originating in San Diego County is that "Neither parent may change the residence of the minor child / children outside the county of San Diego without the written consent of the other parent or further order of the Court."
San Diego County may see more than an ordinary share of "move away" requests, because of the large number of military families. Whenever a "primary custodial parent" needs to relocate, he / she must jump through several important 'hoops' to get permission from the judge, unless, of course, the other parents signs off (literally) on the move.
There are any number of reasons the parent needs to move the military, jobs, other marriages. The court then will consider a request by the "non-custodial parent" (a rather unfortunately worded phrase to describe the parent with less parenting time) to consider whether there should be a change of custody if the other parent moves. Move away motions are the stuff of highest drama in Family Court. Often, the situation is that the child moving away will drastically reduce the child's contact with the other parent. In fact, if it's an interstate move, that's the norm. If a military service member has primary custody, or the primary custodial parent is married to a military service member, and the service member gets orders for some far-off duty station, for example, then the state can determine whether the child should go, too, or stay behind with the other parent.
Move away proceedings involve the highest level of conflict, at least in my fifteen+ years of litigating family law proceedings. There will often be an expert evaluator appointed. The financial price tag alone can be quite high. But, often parents feel they have no other meaningful choice other than to promote the move (the moving parent) or oppose it (the non-moving parent), at great cost. There have been two watershed cases in the last decade that reached the California Supreme Court on this issue. The issues can be extremely complex. Each parent tries to persuade the judge that the facts compel the judge to agree with his / her position. Anyone seriously considering proposing or opposing a move-away motion would do well to get excellent legal advice early.
Call our office if this is something you are considering, we will set up a Family Law Case Evaluation for you to speak to an attorney.
