One of the interesting parts of a family law case is that it marks a time of transition for your family. Change is common for young families and coming out of a divorce or child custody case. You may notice that different opportunities have presented themselves to you. For one, your children are growing, and their needs are changing. As such, focusing on the needs and best interests of your children makes a lot of sense. Concentrate on your children is a good way to not only improve their life but your own, as well.
The desire to better serve your children may lead you towards wanting to relocate closer to family. Your former home may no longer be available to you. Sometimes, you may have only lived in an area because your spouse preferred it. Now that you are coming out of a family law you have an opportunity to learn more about how relocation can benefit your family.
However, relocation does not come without its share of risks. In today’s blog post from the Law Office of Bryan Fagan, we will discuss how relocation can impact your family. Along the way, we will share our perspective on this important topic and provide helpful information.
Why try and relocate?
Put yourself in the following position. You have gone through a divorce. You and your ex-wife have a seven-year-old son together. He is growing up right before your eyes. Your ex-spouse shares 50/50 custody with you. That means that the two of you split time together with your son. This works out great. You can see your son frequently and spend a lot of time with him. Nothing makes you happier than being able to take your son to San Antonio, where you are from, to see your family.
It has been a thought of yours recently that your son should start to see his extended family more. Your parents aren’t able to move to Houston, so you decide to move to San Antonio. However, before you call a realtor you re-read your court orders to see what they may say. You remember the advice given to you by your attorney with the Law Office of Bryan Fagan. Which was: read your court orders from the divorce regularly. This way you won’t forget what they have to say.
What do your court orders say about relocation?
Once you have a chance to sit down and read those court orders it comes to your attention that they don’t say anything explicit about “relocation.” However, what you do see is something called a geographic restriction. This catches your attention, so you decide to look up what it means to have a geographic restriction in your court orders. You learn that a geographic restriction is a potential hazard to your situation. What purpose does a geographic restriction serve in a family law case?
A geographic restriction limits where your child can live. It is not mandatory to include a geographic restriction in your final orders. However, some families choose to include them in their orders. The overall purpose of a geographic restriction is to provide parents with an opportunity to build a relationship with their children. Suppose the primary conservator of a child could move wherever she wanted. What sort of position would that put you in?
It would create a situation where you need to follow your co-parent around the country, potentially. This is no way to develop family cohesion. What a geographic restriction accomplishes is to keep families close to one another. The geographic restriction that your family chooses can be quite broad. For example, sometimes families choose a geographic restriction that includes multiple counties in a certain area. This could be Harris and any county that is contiguous to Harris County.
Specific geographic restrictions
On the other hand, we have also worked with clients who have chosen very specific geographic restrictions. These types of restrictions could limit the child’s residence to an area of a city or even a specific school district. Whatever your choice is on a geographic restriction be sure to think it through. Agreeing to a geographic restriction when doing so may not be in your child’s best interests is a risky move.
Best interests of your child
One of the difficult parts of this discussion is understanding that the move you propose must primarily serve your child. It cannot be that you are the one who stands to benefit the most. Rather, a court determines whether to agree to the proposed motion by looking at the impact of the decision on the well-being, health, and education of your child. If the proposed change to your court orders is not in the child’s best interests then do not expect the change to be granted by the judge.
What the best interests standard attempts to do is take into account future and present circumstances. Rather than considering only one or two factors, by looking at the emotional, educational, and physical well-being of your child you can get a better idea about what is in the best interests of your son or daughter. This helps families like yours be able to assess the totality of the circumstances.
Some parents inadvertently will substitute their own best interests with those of their children. It is simple enough to presume that what is in your best interests is also in the best interests of your child. However, this is not how the state of Texas views the situation. Rather, you and your child may have different interests when it comes to a particular subject. This can be especially true when you consider that relocation is a major change.
Beginning the process of relocation with a minor child
You may want to immediately start packing your things and making plans to move closer to family. However, given the circumstances that would not be wise. The reason is the geographic restriction in your case prevents your child from living beyond the borders of Harris County. As a result, moving to San Antonio would violate that restriction. You would be compromising the visitation and possession schedule that you and your co-parent share. In short, a move like this would throw into turmoil almost the entirety of the parenting plan you have concerning your child.
The question that you need to answer, then, is what you can do in a situation like this. What is the most sensible decision when it comes to making a major move across the state of Texas? How can you go about ensuring that this move occurs with the least amount of stress possible? To begin with, start by speaking to your co-parent. This is not something that you are going to be able to hide from her. Likewise, it is not something that you will want to do until after addressing it directly with your co-parent.
This way you can gauge her reaction to the desired move. You should not expect her to throw metaphorical rose petals at your feet as you attempt to move your child far away from home. Most co-parents would not react all that well to the desire that you have to move your family to San Antonio. However, in the interest of communication and cooperation, this is the right way to go about the attempted move. The more you and your parent communicate about topics like this the better off your family will be in the long run.
Lifting a geographic restriction
The most significant limiting factor that you have in your family court orders is geographic restriction. As the parent who can determine the primary residence of your child, you otherwise would be able to move. However, a second limiting factor is the possession schedule you have with your ex-spouse. You also wouldn’t be able to conflict with the possession and visitation rights that she has. These are the two major limiting factors in your divorce decree that prevent a move to San Antonio.
The question you are presented with in that case is what can you do to make this move considering the court order? A modification of the court order would appear to be necessary under these circumstances. By talking with your co-parent, It is likely abundantly clear that she is not on board with the proposed move. This is completely understandable given her position. In that case, a modification would be necessary to allow you to relocate.
However, this is not something that you have any degree of experience with. Additionally, a modification of court orders is a much different case than you experienced in the divorce. As a result, being able to work with an experienced family law attorney is a necessity if you want to modify these orders. With that in mind, you reach out to the Law Office of Bryan Fagan for a free-of-charge consultation. When you sit down with one of our experienced family law attorneys this is the type of Information you would likely hear.
Planning a modification case
Not only would a proposed modification need to be in the best interest of your child, but it would also have to be based on a material and substantial change in circumstances. That change needs to be experienced by either you, your co-parent, or your child. In your situation, the change you are proposing cannot just be made on a whim. Rather, the proposed change must be made because of something developing in your life.
It is understood that a child should be able to have a connection to their extended family. As a result, advocating for this right would seem to be the basis of any child custody modification that you seek. As you begin to plan a modification case you need to tell the attorney the extent of the relationship that your child has with your extended family. How much time has your child spent with family in San Antonio? Who are the family members that live in that area? What do you seek to accomplish by the move?
In a way, it may seem silly for you to have to go into this amount of detail to try and justify a move with your child. However, remember that the court does not see things primarily from your perspective. Rather, a court views the circumstances through the prism of the best interests of your child. Additionally, the visitation and possession rights of your co-parent are also critical. By making this move you are encumbering the rights of your co-parent. This is a major drawback of the move, to say the least.
The best interest of your child in relocating
in short, it is difficult to argue to a court that limiting your child’s contact with his mother is in his best interest. There are certain circumstances in family law where the best interests of your child may be served by limiting his contact with your ex-wife. However, those circumstances almost always involve situations related to drug or alcohol abuse. It is much less frequent than hey steady parent has their visitation and position limited.
This means that it will be an uphill climb for you to convince a court that it is in the best interest of your child to facilitate this move. Another difficulty in a modification like this is that there is no middle ground for you to capture in this case. Let’s consider an example of a child support modification case. If you are asking the court to reduce your child support by $500 per month because you lost your former job that may be a reasonable request. From there, your co-parent can negotiate with you.
Ultimately, a $250 per month reduction in child support may result because of negotiation. There are many areas in family law where negotiation along these lines can occur. However, this is not the kind of negotiation that is possible in a relocation case. Moving halfway between Houston and San Antonio would not accomplish your goal of putting your child in the same geographic proximity to your family. As a result, this is the challenge that you would need to face as you attempt to file a modification.
Difficulties associated with relocation under a family court order
Planning a relocation related to extended family is a terrific goal to have. There is no doubt that you have many good desires when it comes to a plan like this. Many times, a person in your position loves their family to such a degree that all of their competing interests fall by the wayside. You would not be the first person who would like a relocation despite the challenges presented by family court orders or other circumstances.
However, those competing circumstances do exist. Your co-parent should have a say in the life of your child. Additionally, your co-parents’ relationship with your child is also important. These are realities which are a relevant part of this discussion. Trying to put them off or ignore them is not prudent. Rather, it is in your child’s best interests for you to weigh these competing interests before making a concerted effort to relocate for family reasons.
When it comes to relocating after a divorce or child custody case, you should anticipate that your co-parent will understandably be against this idea. It is not impossible to relocate after a child custody case. What you need to consider is your relationship with your child as well as your co-parents. When your co-parent has an established relationship with your child it makes it quite difficult to modify court order in a way that would facilitate this type of move.
Final thoughts on relocation and child custody
There are so many competing interests when it comes to a possible move for family reasons. It is worthwhile to have different perspectives when it comes to moves like this. Having the perspective of an experienced family law attorney helps to guide and center apparent like yourself during a time when you probably have a great deal of questions. Deciding whether to even file a modification in this type of scenario is a worthwhile perspective to have.
Thank you for joining us today on the blog for the Law Office of Bryan Fagan. Our attorneys value the relationships we have with our clients. We seek to help our clients to the greatest extent possible and advocate for them inside and outside the courtroom. We welcome you to join us again in the future as we continue to post unique and informative blogs each day of the week.
Questions about the material contained in today’s blog post? Contact the Law Office of Bryan Fagan
The attorneys with the Law Office of Bryan Fagan offer free of charge consultations six days a week in person, over the phone, and via video. These consultations are a great way for you to learn more about the world of Texas family law. Before signing a document or negotiating on a subject you do not know well, contact our office. We look forward to the opportunity of serving you during an important part of your life. The Law Office of Bryan Fagan is on your side.
Evan Hochschild was raised in Houston, TX and graduated from Cypress Creek High School. He went on to graduate from Southwestern University in Georgetown, TX with an undergraduate degree in Political Science. While in college, Evan was a four-year letterman on the Cross Country team.
Following in the footsteps of his grandfather and uncle before him, Evan attended law school after he completed in his undergraduate studies. He graduated from St. Mary’s University School of Law and has practiced in a variety of areas in the law- including family law.
Mr. Hochschild is guided by principles which place the interests of clients first. Additionally, Evan seeks to provide information and support for his clients with the heart of a teacher.
Evan and his wife have four small children together. He enjoys afternoons out and about with his family, teaching Sunday school at his church and exercising. A veteran attorney of fourteen years, Mr. Hochschild excels in communicating complex ideas in family law simply and directly.
