Who has considered moving lately? (Me! I actually justmoved personally, and our office is moving!) Although there are major headaches that come with moving, there are so many exciting, new adventures to take, and positive memories made!
But where can you move? You have a constitutional right to live wherever you can live; however, you cannot necessarily take your children with you.
What does that mean? If you desire to move to Montana, but your children’s other parent lives in Charlotte and does not agree with you to move to Montana with the children, theMecklenburg County Court will make that decision.
Here are the different factors that the Court considers:
1.The advantages of the relocation in terms of its capacity to improve the life the of child
a.The most common example here is when a party lives in an unfavorable school district and has an opportunity to move to the best school in the state; however, this prong is the most difficult of the (5) to prove.
2.The motives of the custodial parent in seeking the move
a.If the parent who desires to move has a sick parent in Montana, it makes sense that he or she would need to assist their family but if there is really no explanation besides, ‘Montana is beautiful!’, this would be a hard argument to make.
3.The likelihood of that the custodial parent will comply with visitation orders when he or she is no longer subject to the jurisdiction of the courts in North Carolina
a.If the moving party has been held in contempt for violating previous orders, it will be very difficult to prove that they will do so in the future.
4.The integrity of the noncustodial parent in resisting the relocation
a.If the moving party has sent countless text messages to the other parent saying, “I will do anything in my power to take the children away from you”, this prong would be difficult to overcome.
5.The likelihood that a realistic visitation schedule can be arranged which will preserve and foster the parental relationship with the noncustodial parent
a.This is the most important. If the nonmoving parent only has every-other weekend, Saturday –Sunday, it would be very easy to replicate the schedule so that the nonmoving parent would still have the same number of overnights moving forward by giving them more time in the summer, more holidays, etcetera.
We know modifying child custody can seemoverwhelming but here at Marcellino & Tyson, PLLC, we are very well educated and experienced in whether your potential move with your children is something to pursue so book an appointment with us today!