Legal Question in Family Law in Arizona
Child relocation issue in Arizona...Divorced in Florida in '04, spouses were active duty military with specific custody arrangements set based on duty locations (and who had primary residential custody).
Ex-wife is no longer active duty. Live in Arizona. I am near retirement also in Arizona. Per our decree, we split 50/50 time (week at a time) and split all child expenses. Ex-wife moved with child to Arizona 5 years ago. I finally got here 3 years ago, so current 50/50 split has been active since 2009.
Ex-wife verbally informed me she is moving to Alaska in May 2012, offered to let me keep daughter for the summer, then send her to Alaska in August. However, I informed her I objected and planned to file a forgein judgment (from Florida to Arizona) and an Objection to Relocation. Child has lived here all through her school-age years (last 5 years), can continue to enroll at current private school, maintain current friendships, etc. Since I am retiring, I can provide stability for her as she gets ready for junior high and beyond.
Ex-wife has no family in Alaska. She stated she wants to move because she wants to make more money (and I suspect she and her boyfriend are going there together, but was not told and I have not asked). I have not found any evidence taking daughter to permanently live in Alaska has any benefits compared to her current status in Arizona. I'm also very concerned about reducing my parenting time from 180+ days a year t0 55 days in the summer and a week during Christmas break for remainder of her childhood. It takes great planning and significant spending to arrange other visitation (child's birthday, for instance) considering Anchorage is 2,554 miles from Phoenix (air fare, hotel, rental car). Other visitation just isn't practical financially or without disrupting my daughter's time during school year.
My question is: Is ex-wife's stated reason (money) and implied reason (boyfriend) overriding factors to child's current arrangement (school, friends, extra-curricular activities, time with father)? My hope is ex-wife changes her mind when I file because my daughter loves having her parents equally (we live 3 miles away from one another), but worry that since ex-wife was designated "primary residential parent", I'll get trumped.
PS. There are no issues of abuse, neglect, failure to pay child expenses. In fact, ex-wife and I got along very well for eight years until this bombshell hit.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Relocation is a complicated issue. Essentially, the relocating parent needs to show that the move is in the child's best interests, based on a list of statutory factors. I recommend that you arrange to transfer jurisdiction of the case to Arizona as soon as possible, since that is now your daughter's "home state" for custody purposes, and Arizona law has a specific process that must be followed if relocation is being pursued (or objected). It can take some time to move the case, so you don't want to get caught between jursdiction if/when the time comes.
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