Perhaps you’re a divorced Massachusetts parent that wants to move outside the state with your children. Things seem better elsewhere. Maybe you just received an attractive job offer with increased pay. Or perhaps it’s the case that a move will place your kids closer to loving grandparents or secure their placement in a better school.
Conversely, you might well have different views concerning out-of-state relocation if you a parent currently living near your children and well satisfied with an existing visitation schedule. And maybe you have various good-faith grounds for opposing an ex-spouse’s relocation afar with the kids.
How can a couple move forward when complex questions — and sometimes challenges — arise relevant to a relocating-with-the-children move outside Massachusetts?
Ideally, things can be worked out amicably enough in direct talks between parents who truly seek to put their kids’ best interests first. Such an outcome does frequently occur. When it does in a given case, the parents should clearly set forth their understanding in a notarized writing. If an existing court order will be materially modified by a new arrangement, that writing should be duly filed with the court that issued it.
Of course, parents sometimes disagree, and strenuously so. Under such circumstances, it might be necessary to directly seek a court’s input on a contemplated relocation. A judge will carefully examine a move from the perspective of affected children’s best interests. If the move is judicially approved, it is often necessary to modify existing custody and visitation arrangements with a new court mandate.
Obviously, relocation-linked questions and issues can get both thorny and complex in some instances. When that turns out to be the case, an affected parent might reasonably consider turning to a proven Massachusetts family law attorney for legal counsel and representation.
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