child custody / moving out of state

[marlainorg]

What is the name of your state?Oregon.
My daughter has full physical custody and joint legal custody of my grandson. He is almost 6. My daughter wants to complete her schooling in California to become an Ophthalmologist, it is less expensive to go to school there. Does her ex husband have legal rights to prevent her from making this move? They are for the most part civil to each other, but I am afraid he may make it difficult for her when the time comes to make the move. It won't be for at least another 1 to 2 years.

Thank you for you help

 

[stealth2]

He can't stop her from moving. He can, however, petition to keep her from removing the child.

 

[marlainorg]

Thank you for your fast response....By petition, what does that mean exactly? Does it mean going to court? Also, what rights do both of the parents have? My daughter has majority of custody with the father having my grandson every other weekend and one night during the week for a few hours if he chooses. They alternate holidays and since my grandson is in school now, he spends some of the vacation time with his dad. Like the christmas break, he spent with his dad.

Thank you,

 

[stealth2]

It means asking the court to intervene and not permit the other parent to remove the child from the state. Since Dad IS apparently an involved father (sounds like he's got standard visitation), he stands a good chance of the court agreeing that it would be against the child's best interests to move away from his father. That would leave your daughter with the choice of staying where she is or giving Dad custody.

 

[snostar]

My daughter wants to complete her schooling in California to become an Ophthalmologist, it is less expensive to go to school there.

This is not a reason for the court to grant your daughter permission to move with the child if the father objects. She will have to prove by many means that the move is in the best interest of the child. The court will consider the father-child relationship the priority, as Stealth pointed out.

 

[candi4687]

Hi

I am not sure of the laws there but I know for Tennessee there are a few things required to do. You need to contact a lawyer to make sure but here you must send a certified letter to the other parent 60 days prior to the move allowing them time to correspond to this letter and file correct paper work against it if they choose to do so. KEEP A COPY!.... If they bring this matter to court she will then have to prove that the reason for the move is to better the quality of life for her or the children and not to be vendictive towards him. Then at that time they may change the visitations. Just make sure she is aware and ready to make sure that the visitaions are still required and most likely she will be solely reliable to have the child there each time for visitation.

 

[marlainorg]

Thank you all for your information. I was wondering, will the father not having been working for over two years help my daughter. I am afraid that he will give her a hard time when it comes time for the move. I would hate to see her have to give up everything she has worked so hard to get to this point as it is. She is a great mother and always makes sure the needs of her son come first, she does want to give her son a better life and be able to save and send her son to college if he wanted to. Her ex husband feels that living in the country with an average education would be exceptable for his son. We live in a small town where most of the employment is some sort of timber related jobs. These jobs are very few. I don't mean to sound negative about the ex son-in-law, because he is a nice person but I would hope that he would want better for his son. He is an unemployed timber worker and has not worked for the last 2 years.
Thank You

 

[LdiJ]

Thank you all for your information. I was wondering, will the father not having been working for over two years help my daughter. I am afraid that he will give her a hard time when it comes time for the move. I would hate to see her have to give up everything she has worked so hard to get to this point as it is. She is a great mother and always makes sure the needs of her son come first, she does want to give her son a better life and be able to save and send her son to college if he wanted to. Her ex husband feels that living in the country with an average education would be exceptable for his son. We live in a small town where most of the employment is some sort of timber related jobs. These jobs are very few. I don't mean to sound negative about the ex son-in-law, because he is a nice person but I would hope that he would want better for his son. He is an unemployed timber worker and has not worked for the last 2 years.
Thank You

Yes, it could be a factor, but not necessarily a terribly significant one. It depends on whether or not he can provide a home for the child despite his lack of employment. The biggest factor that a judge would look at is whether or not it was truly necessarily for your daughter to move to CA to complete her education....and whether or not that move would actually take her further away than a reasonable school in OR.

 

[gatorguy3]

Re: child custody/moving out of state

The truth of the matter is, the most important "things" in a child's life are his/her parents. Moving a child across country for any reason (away from one of the parents) is detrimental to the relationship between the child and that parent. If the majority of "move aways" were not initiated by the mother then some trust could be given that the reason is not for anger or spite against dad.

I have seen cases in different instances where the judge would give custody to dad if mom decided she wanted to move away for any reason. Besides, California is not the only place your daughter can learn to be an Opthimologist.

If she is such a good mother to her son then she will consider that having dad in his life is most important.

 

[marlainorg]

Thank you for the information. Do you think that if my daughter were to stay in the state but the only school is about 6 hours away so she would still have to move, do you think the court would still look in favor of the father? One of the reasons for the CA move was because my daughter and her son could live with my sister and her family, "one daughter". They live in a great area and have good schools. It would be hugh financial relief for my daughter. My grandson would be in about 2nd or 3rd grade by the time she will have the degrees she will need to go school there. It will take her about 4 years to actually become a doctor and then I believe she would be moving back here to work. I hope I have not painted a bad picture for either my ex son-in-law or my daughter. They do not hate each other, they just simply grew apart. They both I am sure want what is best for my grandson.
Thank you