Sharing parental rights and responsibilities is commonplace. When parents divorce or break up with one another, they generally have to share parenting time and decision-making authority. Occasionally, one parent can make decisions that may have negative implications for the rights of the other parent.
If one parent accepts a new job, finds a cheaper apartment or starts a new romantic relationship, they may want to move a significant distance away from their current residence. That relocation could have negative implications for the parental rights of the other adult in the family.
Can one parent make the unilateral decision to relocate with their children despite having a shared custody order?
Move-aways require consent or pre-approval
It is relatively common for attorneys helping people establish custody orders to suggest the inclusion of terms limiting relocations. Parents can integrate specific rules, such as requiring pre-approval when one parent intends to move out of the school district or a certain distance away from their current residence.
When a move is significant enough to trigger those rules or when parents do not have specific rules in place, pre-approval is typically necessary for any significant relocation. The parent proposing the move needs to secure the consent of the other parent or the approval of the courts first. If the other parent is cooperative, then that process may be relatively straightforward.
When there is a dispute about the relocation, the courts may have to resolve the disagreement between parents. Judges hearing relocation cases should make decisions that are in the best interests of the children. They do so by reviewing the state of the relationships that the children have with both parents, the reasoning behind the relocation request and the distance of the move.
If the judge agrees that the children may derive benefits from the relocation by being closer to other family members, enjoying improved economic circumstances or having access to better schools, then they may very well approve relocation requests. In scenarios where the move seems inspired by a desire to alienate the other parent from the children, a judge may be less likely to allow a relocation.
Move-away requests typically culminate in a modification of a custody order. The allocation of parenting time generally needs to change to reflect the new living circumstances of the parents. Understanding what happens during difficult and potentially contentious child custody disagreements can help parents assert themselves. Relocation requests can easily result in major changes for a family and may force parents to take their custody matters back to family court.