Can she take her?

[vh81]

My husband's ex-wife called the other day and said she was moving out to CA where her mom lives, and she is taking my 4 year old step-daughter with her. We live in MO and will NEVER get to see her. Is there anyway that a judge would tell her that she couldn't move, or tell her to give us custody? Ex would be uprooting stepdaughter from her entire family other than her mom and grandma. All of her friends and everyone will miss out on her life and her growing up. We haven't gone to court or anything yet, and don't have a lawyer yet either. I know that each state has specific Family Laws but need to know if anyone has any insight into this sort of thing.

 

[NYClex]

This is one of the trickiest and most unpleasant problems in family law. There are basically two rights conflicting: The right of the custodial parent, who has the right to move wherever she wants, and take the child with her, since she has custody, and the visitation rights of the non-custodial parents, who has a right to have contact with his child.

There is no easy solution. Judges are supposed to rule in the best interest of the child, this supersedes both the above mentioned rights, in other words, the child comes first. If there is a clear advantage to the chidl for one or the other solution, the judge usually will go for it. But if there is no clear advantage, it is very hard to make a decision.

There have been cases in which a judge pretty clearly said: You cannot move the child out of state. But there is no clear cut rule. Usually an elaborate visitation schedule is being set up, which allows the non-custodial parent to see his child, even if it means for the custodial parent to send the child by plane across the nation. Of course such a schedule would not be a weekly or even a monthly schedule.

So in your case, you probably will have to consult an attorney and carefully go through all the details with him or her to evaluate your possibilities.