With the current state of the economy, and unemployment holding at record highs, more and more Southern California parents are faced with difficult decisions. Should you uproot your family to move to an unfamiliar city in search of a better job? That is a question that you might not be able to answer without the help of a child custody attorney.
Unfortunately for divorced parents with a court ordered custody agreement, just because one parent finds work in another state or even within California, they don’t have the legal right to move their children without getting what is known as a move away order.
Regardless of whether or not a parent has full custody, or the parents share joint custody, the courts will always try to ensure that both parents are involved in raising a child so long as that is in the best interest of the child. Before the courts will decide to allow one parent to relocate a child away from the second parent, they will consider several factors. For example, the court will consider the school that the child currently attends and compare it to the school the parent plans to enroll the child in. The court will want to know what kind of job the parent will be able to acquire, as well as the income that job will provide.
If the child is 12 years or older, the court will also listen to the testimony of the child and take what they would like to do into consideration.
Children need two parents to be involved in raising them, whenever that is possible. The court strongly encourages parents to cooperate and to make joint decisions that are in the best interest of their children. This is often more difficult to do when parents live thousands of miles from each other. The bottom line is that the courts do grant “move away” requests on a regular basis. However, this is a major decision and you should definitely seek the guidance of an experienced family law firm prior to making a final decision on whether to proceed with a legal “move away” motion.
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