Legal Question in Family Law in California
My ex-wife was granted full legal and physical custody of my daughter in April.
My daughter had been in custody of my ex-wife's parents for 6 of her 7 living years.
My daughter moved in with my ex-wife and her boyfriend around August 1.
Shortly after, my ex-wife announced she and her boyfriend has decided to move to Oregon, effective as soon as a new tenant has been found to take over their current lease, which ends Nov. 1st. My ex-wife and her boyfriend are disregarding the wishes of both myself, my mother and my ex-wife's own parents to not move my daughter so far away from us and any other family members, including her cousins.
The Custody Agreement has four parts:
1) The mother shall have full legal and physical custody of the child.
2) The father shall have unsupervised visitation with the child as arranged by mutual agreement with the mother.
3) The maternal and paternal grandparents shall have unsupervised visitation with the child as arranged by mutual agreement with the mother.
4) The passport restriction on the child imposed during a prior mediation in January 2004 shall be lifted.
Can my ex-wife move my daughter out of state legally??
Do the grandparents have any say on this matter??
1 Answer from Attorneys
You have a really poor custody agreement, since it only says you have agreed to try to agree. So technically your ex would not be in violation of anything if she moves the child out of state. You need to get back into court ASAP for a modification of the custody order. That will trigger a judicial review of her intention to move away. When you file the motion or OSC, you probably also need to get a temporary restraining order agains her taking your daughter out of the state until the hearing, since most courts won't have a hearing date available for you until after she seems like she wants to move.
Yes, the grandparents have some say, but not nearly as much, since moving out of state doesn't necessarily interfere with how often most kids see their grandparents.
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