Legal Question in Family Law in New York

Re: My wife's rights...

If your wife has her act together, why does she only see her children a few times a year?

If your wife cannot negotiate a settlement with her ex, suggest she file a petition in the Family Court ASAP.

If you would like to discuss this with me privately, please call to schedule a consultation.

I practice in NYC and Long Island.

Re: My wife's rights...

Your post is 'silent' on it, so I am going to assume that there has been *no* on-going Family Court activity. I am also going to assume that whatever court made the custody order, it did include some provision for visitation; and I am going to assume that your wife has maintained some effort to *do* visitation.

The law as applied {or the "thinking"} as to relocation of custodial parents has undergone something of a shift in the past couple years. Commentators {when the shift first began} announced that it was going to be easier for custodial parents to move away {or, put otherwise, that it was going to be more difficult for non-custodial parents to stop it}.

Nevertheless, the "lynch-pin" issue is the true if tired "best interests of the child" criteria.

USUALLY, such cases include ex-wives who want to move to be with their new beau; or because they're moving in w/ mom while waiting for opportunity to knock.

&, w/re: those cases, the older rule was something like:

"the mother has to demonstrate that she actually has 'prospects' that are reasonably expected to be of enough additional benefit to the child, to off-set the presumed 'damage' suffered by the child's loss of some association with the father".

Or, put otherwise, the prospects had to be demonstrable to be enough more beneficial to the child to off-set the dismay experienced by the non-custodial parent.

There still is some requirement that the relocating parent be able to demonstrate a *good* reason for moving, including some showing that there will be significant "improvement" in the child's lot in life.

So: it may be that your wife is in a good position to "flex some muscle" on this issue. Someone DOES need to go to court - - and the sooner, the better.

Regards, etc.,

JM Hayes

>>--> The foregoing amounts to musings and observations based on some years familiarity with the 'day-to-day' operation of the law with regard to the issues involved In The Most General sense; my remarks should not be thought of as "legal advice and counsel" in the formal sense of that phrase, since there is, in fact, no 'attorney / client' relationship existing between us. <-<<