A Parent Wants to Move With their Child
At Filler Rodriguez LLP, we get many calls from parents who may want to move with their child to another city, county, state or country. These are called relocation cases if the move is more than 50 miles.
In Florida, after a case is started or you already have a parenting plan (custody order), in order to move, divorced or divorcing parents must comply with Florida’s Relocation Statute: Section 61.13001, Florida Statutes which can be found in full at: Online Sunshine
The relocation applies to those parents with custody rights or to individuals with rights of access to children after an order has been entered establishing a timesharing plan or a case has been opened. However, even if you don’t have majority “custody” or what we refer to as timesharing, a parent seeking to move more than 50 miles from their residence must file a petition for relocation pursuant to the statute. That does not make a lot of sense to many people if they are a parent who does not want to move with their child for the majority of time. Be that as it may, that is what the law in Florida requires a parent to do if they are moving more than 50 miles from their current residence: file a petition for relocation even if it is just them moving. This scenario is not common but does happen.
The common scenario is where a parent wants to move with their child. In that case the parents can agree but the agreement must be in writing and the requirements of Section 61.13001 must be met. If the parents cannot agree, then the parent seeking to move with their child will need to file a Petition for Relocation.
Relocation cases are very complicated and require a lot of evidence to be prepared in advance of the trial. If you are parent involved in a relocation please call the lawyers at Filler Rodriguez, LLP for assistance at: 305.672.5007 for a consultation.
