Do Not Remove From State

What is the name of your state? IL

I recivied a copy of my wife's divorce petition today and it has a paper attached to it that states children can not be removed from the state until the divorce is over.

How strictly is that applied? Our child's doctor is in Indiana (we live very close to the IL/IN border). Will I have to ask for the court's permission to take my daughter to the doctor?

My understanding of the removal from state laws means that you can't relocate or more specifically relocate the kids without the courts consent. Taking them to the doctor shouldn't be any issue if you and your STBX are in agreement. If this is a contentuous divorce it is worth clarifying that the children's primary physician is located at XX.

Nirelan said:

What is the name of your state? IL

I recivied a copy of my wife's divorce petition today and it has a paper attached to it that states children can not be removed from the state until the divorce is over.

How strictly is that applied? Our child's doctor is in Indiana (we live very close to the IL/IN border). Will I have to ask for the court's permission to take my daughter to the doctor?

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This is one of those cases that it helps to know the local practice. While we were in NY, we had very similar wording that we could not remove the children from the COUNTY. We were unable to even take the kids to a beach area in the next county (25 miles) for ice cream because her attorney said that this was taken very seriously in NY.

I'd make sure your attorney is very comfortable with it before doing anything.

Once again, for the READERS, the laws in New York have nothing to do with the laws in the Original Poster's state, which is Illinois.

Do not ever make the stunning mistake of thinking that what occurred, in a legal sense, in one state is valid or will happen in a different state.

This is not a support group, this is a legal info site. There is absolutely no point whatsoever in bringing up factoids or incidents from another state.

mistoffolees said:

This is one of those cases that it helps to know the local practice. While we were in NY, we had very similar wording that we could not remove the children from the COUNTY. We were unable to even take the kids to a beach area in the next county (25 miles) for ice cream because her attorney said that this was taken very seriously in NY.

I'd make sure your attorney is very comfortable with it before doing anything.

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who in the HELL cares what the attorney is comfortable with??

It is the JUDGE he/she needs to worry about.

Nirelan said:

What is the name of your state? IL

I recivied a copy of my wife's divorce petition today and it has a paper attached to it that states children can not be removed from the state until the divorce is over.

How strictly is that applied? Our child's doctor is in Indiana (we live very close to the IL/IN border). Will I have to ask for the court's permission to take my daughter to the doctor?

Click to expand...

My observations have been, for both IN and IL, that the intent of the standard clause is to prevent relocation of the children, not to prevent a day trip across the border for something simple, or even to prevent a vacation.

However, that assumes that the standard clause is what was attached, and not something more specific.

Silverplum said:

Once again, for the READERS, the laws in New York have nothing to do with the laws in the Original Poster's state, which is Illinois.

Do not ever make the stunning mistake of thinking that what occurred, in a legal sense, in one state is valid or will happen in a different state.

This is not a support group, this is a legal info site. There is absolutely no point whatsoever in bringing up factoids or incidents from another state.

Click to expand...

It is, of course, true that laws vary from one state to another. My point was that it is possible in at least some cases for judges to follow the letter of the law and if they say not to remove the children from the state that they mean it. I was simply cautioning the OP not to accept "well, I was only taking the child out of state for a doctor's appointment" as acceptable - because it might not be.

Which is why I suggested talking with a local attorney to see how the judges interpret such a statement in that state.

fairisfair said:

who in the HELL cares what the attorney is comfortable with??

It is the JUDGE he/she needs to worry about.

Click to expand...

Perhaps because you can ask your attorney how judges usually interpret that statement in that state? Once you're in front of the judge being charged with taking the children out of state, it's a little late to be asking the question.