Does this qualify as change in circumstances

[chronicle]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
GA
What qualifies as “change of circumstances?”

Parents share 50/50 (week on, week off). Father moved in with girlfriend last year, girlfriend has 2 kids who go to one school. Mom (me) had 75% custody when child started school, so child was enrolled for 3 years in my district (parents live approx 15/20 minutes from each other). I voluntarily agreed to move to 50/50, though my ex makes it exceptionally difficult to co-parent (won’t communicate, won’t pay ordered bills, won’t get child to school on time or complete homework, etc), so I have been seriously regretting that decision. But at the time, my atty told me that is what would have been ordered by a judge so not to fight it.

Because child is not doing great in school (not failing, just not doing very well, and saying he “hates school.”) I agreed to try a new school, letting him attend the same school as girlfriends kids next year. Child is moderately happy with the idea. Over the summer, I will be moving closer to Dad’s district to make it a little easier on everyone.

Issue: I have heard through mutual friends that Dad is considering making a move for change in custody to a 75/25 that favors him. He’s been threatening this for a while (see older posts), but now he thinks he has a stronger case. His idea, as I understand it, is to use the home with the girlfriend (“family atmosphere”) and the fact that he attends school in their district, and the fact that he is unemployed a lot of the time, and so can pick-up the child after school, whereas on my parenting time, I have to use an after-school care program… because I WORK…

Does any of this come close to qualifying as the kind of change in circumstance he would need to affect (effect? I never get that one right!) a change in custody?

 

[mistoffolees]

OK. For starters, you can't simply change school district whenever you want. You're probably committing fraud if you move the child to another district (unless you're paying out-of-district tuition). Dad could only put the kids in GF's school if he lives in that district AND he has primary physical custody.

I don't see anything that's a change of circumstances in the story.

HOWEVER, I don't understand why your attorney told you what he did - maybe you misunderstood.

As I understand it, you have a court order that's 75/25 with you having primary physical. Yet you have been allowing 50/50 without a court order. How long as that been going on?

I don't understand why your attorney would think that you'd need a new court order to go back to 75/25 - which is what your court order says. You could just do it and there is nothing wrong with it. Now, if you've been doing 50/50 for very long, your ex could ask for a new court order based on the status quo, but that would be an uphill battle. Unless you've been doing it for years, "we tried it, but the child isn't doing well in school, so I want to go back to the original court order" is a decent argument.

 

[chronicle]

Misunderstandings!

We are not committing fraud. My ex does live in the new district, and we share equal legal & physical custody. I already checked with the school district and there is not problem with child attending an elementary school in Dad's district.

We have NOT been operating off our court order. Our original order provided for an outline of 50/50 once Dad had a stable living environment (he didn't at the time the original order was entered). So I can't ask to go back, because the CO states that once Dad has a place to live, then 50/50 would begin.

My atty told me that I could fight against 50/50, but that I would likely lose as in our area judges have a tendency to order 50/50 if one parent asks for it,and the other fights it.

The only off-court-order thing I have been allowing is for Dad to get away with not paying his share of medical bills, and allowing our daily schedule (week/week) which works better for our child than the 2/2/5 outlined in our CO.

 

[randolph76]

Misunderstandings!

We are not committing fraud. My ex does live in the new district, and we share equal legal & physical custody. I already checked with the school district and there is not problem with child attending an elementary school in Dad's district.

We have NOT been operating off our court order. Our original order provided for an outline of 50/50 once Dad had a stable living environment (he didn't at the time the original order was entered). So I can't ask to go back, because the CO states that once Dad has a place to live, then 50/50 would begin.

My atty told me that I could fight against 50/50, but that I would likely lose as in our area judges have a tendency to order 50/50 if one parent asks for it,and the other fights it.

The only off-court-order thing I have been allowing is for Dad to get away with not paying his share of medical bills, and allowing our daily schedule (week/week) which works better for our child than the 2/2/5 outlined in our CO.

If your court order says it would change to 50/50 then it wasn't exactly voluntary. I agree with misto that none of that would constitute a change of circumstance. Do you know what's driving his desire for more custodial time?

 

[chronicle]

I do not know what is driving this. I would like to believe he just wants more time with child. Based on past and current interactions between him and the child though, I am more likely to believe it has to do with the girlfriend/creating a family dynamic there. But that's a guess informed by behavior, I can't read his mind.

 

[chronicle]

Meant to say also- thank you. If this doesn't seem like enough of a change, then I will not worry about it. (Well, I'll still worry a little, but not as much) Thank you.

 

[randolph76]

I do not know what is driving this. I would like to believe he just wants more time with child. Based on past and current interactions between him and the child though, I am more likely to believe it has to do with the girlfriend/creating a family dynamic there. But that's a guess informed by behavior, I can't read his mind.

He doesn't have a strong case. We've seen girlfriend/boyfriends pushing the custody issue in the past. If you two could decide what works best for the child that would be optimum. You can only control what you do -- which looks like you're on the right track, i.e. keeping communication open, moving closer, etc.