Legal Question in Family Law in California

If a parent that shares custody and visitation with the other parent wants to move and it would effect the current schedule and change the order in place is it unreasonable to ask the courts to impose transportation costs on the moving parent.

Re: visitation, holiday and summer, if the current plan is 1/2 of all and it is possible regarding time to stay that way is that an unreasonable request so that the parent does not lose any time they currently have.


Asked on 8/18/11, 3:35 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

It is common to impose transit costs on the moving parent in a move-away motion, but who is moving and who is staying is not the only factor in that decision; ability to pay will be a key factor as well. So if incomes are very different, that will be important, particularly if the moving parent is moving to more pay which will reduce child support charged to the non-moving parent.

As for the parenting plan, it is impossible to make any kind of prediction on that except that if the parents can agree on it, it will 9 times out of 9 be better for the child than a court imposed plan. Whether a plan that keeps 50/50 time is reasonable or unreasonable depends on too many factors to even guess at it in an internet Q&A. I can tell you, however, that I once got primary custody for a client who was the non-moving parent, when the moving parent's ideas for keeping 50/50 were ridiculous - including that the child would spend the first semester in school in the county where my client lived, and then would transfer to the other county for the second semester every year. So "possible" is not what counts. What counts is "best interests of the minor child." That is the standard the court must apply in ordering a custody schedule.

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Answered on 8/18/11, 3:57 pm


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