Legal Question in Family Law in Washington

Re: child

There is no law that says at "X" age a child can choose. That said, if there is a custody dispute, or one parent and a child want to change custody and the other parent does not want to change, then depending on the child's age, their opinion may be solicited by a parenting evaluator or a guardian ad litem, who will then report to the Court, with their recommendations. The report will likely forward the child's opinion, and depending on the child's reasons and maturity, the report may either tell the court to disregard the child's opinion or to strongly consider it, or something in between.

Put another way, if a 15 year old says they want to live with dad instead of mom because dad lets them stay up late, that is not a good reason. Neither is that one parent is cooler than another, or more lax on homework.

On the other hand, a reason such as dad lives in a school district that has a certain academic program which the child wants to participate in and that is not available in their current location, starts to make the child's wish reasonable. Still, no one reason will make the difference. The Court has to look at the totality of the child's circumstances and the living situation of the parent who wants custody- do they have space, facilities, etc.