Child Custody and Visitation Attorney in Irvine, California
How does a parent’s location impact child custody arrangements?
How does a parent’s location impact child custody arrangements?
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A lot of people come to me and they are
in the kind of decision-making mode of
whether or not they need to move away.
And it’s a very difficult issue for the
court to deal with. Um, and there are
lots of reasons why someone might want
to move away with the kids in
California. Uh, the court can’t stop a
parent from actually moving. So the
issue isn’t whether or not that parent
can move. It’s if the children can move
with the parent. The court has
jurisdiction over the custody issues and
the court can limit the time extensively
if the parent does move away. So you
really have to go and look at the
reasons for the move, why they’re
moving, and then kind of the social
circles of what the kids are. So if they
are, you know, in seventh grade, are
very active in their sports, they’re
very active in their church or temple.
um and they have a strong friends and
strong social social circle, it’s going
to be very difficult to convince the
court that it’s in their best interest
to move away from that. And you can kind
of contrast that with someone who might
be very young, um, you know, in
kindergarten or first grade who doesn’t
necessarily have, you know, a strong
social circle and maybe might be moving
to a location where there is lots of
family, where they visit lots of times,
um, where they already have friends, um,
where there’s already a social circle
waiting for them. Um, and it’s much
easier to present to the court the
reasons for the move. And I think a lot
of people get kind of caught in this
trap of, well, it’s really better for me
if I move and there will be more
opportunities for me, you know, in the
new location, uh, if I go there, whether
I there’s a job waiting for me or I’m
making more money and I really need to
switch that view from them to what’s
going to happen to the kids by doing
this. Why is it in their best interest
to move with you? And the answer can’t
just be because, well, I’ll make more
money in that location. It really has to
be more of a thoughtout presentation.
Um, you need to have researched the
area, researched the schools, researched
every, you know, they are involved in
sports and let’s say they play travel
soccer. Is there a travel soccer program
that’s equal to the travel soccer
program that is where they are living
now and if so, have you had
conversations with the coaches? Have you
done your due diligence to go over
there? And what happens is it becomes
this very nuanced process and you need
to be very organized and thoughtful in
the way that you present it because
you’re first going to be presenting it
to a custody evaluator. Uh and this
person’s not a judge, but they’re
someone who’s going to make
recommendations about what the move is
going to look like. So, uh we have, you
know, a lot of power with these custody
evaluators and how they’re going to make
this decision and how much weight
they’re going to put to all of these
factors. So the better and more
organized and informed you are, the
better presentation that you can have to
these people. And when they go through
these process, I think people also don’t
quite understand the timeline. Um, if
you want to move away and it’s going to
be a nuanced process and you’re going
through an evaluation, it’s going to be
at a minimum a 6 to9 month journey of
making the request, meeting and
confirming with the other side, starting
a custody evaluation, going through the
process of a custody evaluation, getting
the recommendations from the evaluator,
and deciding if you’re going to follow
those recommendations and agree upon
them, or if you’re going to fight those
recommendations and take it to a trial.
And then you have to understand that the
other side is doing the same thing in
the case. So something that is that big
of a decision and that of a major
influence in these children’s life is
going to be a nuance process that takes
time.
Irvine, CA family law attorney Marc Garelick talks about how a parent’s location can impact child custody arrangements.
