Legal Question in Family Law in Maryland

You should schedule an office visit with an experienced family law attorney in the county where the mother in law currently resides with the children. The emergency petition to modify child custody/visitation is too important to handle by yourself.

Moreover, you have to consider alternatives to having your ex mother in law as custodian of the children if she insists on moving out of the state. Indeed, the court cannot prevent her from moving. It can prevent her from taking the children. At the relocation hearing, the court makes an analysis to determine what is in the best interest of the children. It considers many factors, including why the mother in law is leaving the state, if the parent can take custody, is the prospective environment an improvement over the current environment, the relationship it has with the parent who will remain in the state, etc.

Good luck.

Licensed in Maryland since 1994.