Legal Question in Family Law in Maryland

Re: Custody/vacation

The language of the court order or separation agreement if there is one is key to the question. If it says that your husband can take the childen on vacation as long as he notifies her by May 1, and she has no veto power over that, than he is perfectly within his rights. The notice provision is designed to give the mother sufficient time to plan around the father's summer visitation. You say that he may have not met the May 1 deadline, but that she agreed to the schedule sometime thereafter. If he confirmed this by email, I'd keep a copy of that handy. In the future, always make sure all communication between them regarding the children is documented by email or otherwise. It sounds like she's trying to punish him for their recent disagreement by invoking the technically of the May 1 deadline at the last moment, even though she has apparently known about the plans for some time.

As to his change of custody petition, I don't think it will be damaged by this.

Before you leave, I would have him send her an email reciting the chronology of what happened, when he notified her of the plans for this week and the fact that she didn't object at the time to the "deadline" issue. Point out that these plans have been in place and the kids are really looking forward to going, considerable expenditure has been made in reliance on the agreement, and her attempts to now try to upset the vacation plans will really only hurt the children and are vindictive.

Finally, if she does call the police and tells them the truth, I doubt they will get involved. If she lies and says he "abducted" them without warning, she might be filing a false police report which is a criminal offense.