Moving out of State with your children requires a lot of thought and planning. I’m not talking about packing and finding a new place to live; I’m talking about making adequate legal preparations so that the other parent doesn’t make a legal move to grab custody or force you to move back. It happens.
Often I field calls where parents are either in the middle of the move or have already moved and can’t figure out how the other parent can make the move an issue or why the Judge was so upset with them. Parents tend to forget that there are very strict laws that apply to moving parents. These laws are not move-friendly, so if you’re planning to move, meet with a seasoned custody lawyer and start planning.
The Arizona case of Guttierrez v. Fox, 394 P.3d 1096 is the seminal case that explains how not to move. In Guttierez, one of the parents moved out of State without telling the other parent, and the Court want’s too happy. The court not only found multiple reasons why the move shouldn’t have happened, but they were also very concerned that the move was also a violation of Arizona law that prevents one parenting hiding a child from another. Further, they considered the act of moving without notification to the other parent as “child stealing.”
The Guttierrez court didn’t say much about a circumstance where the other parent is not involved, but even for those parents that want to move out-of-State, you should consult with a lawyer, find the other parent, and provide proper notice as required by Arizona Statute just to be safe.
Recently I argued a case in court that very much followed the Guttierrez case. My client was the father. The mother moved out-of-State without any notice. The Judge didn’t order the mother to return to Arizona in that case, but ordered that all parenting time was to be exercised in Arizona, thereby in a round about way forcing the child’s mother to return to Arizona, if she ever wanted to see her child again.
Something to consider.
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