The good and the bad of relocation after divorce

For a lot of people, divorce is a term that carries a negative connotation and is often frowned upon. But for people who have had particularly rocky marriages, this isn’t necessarily the case. Divorce is seen as a way of starting over fresh — putting the past behind them and looking forward to the future.

For a lot of people, starting over fresh can be as simple as changing their name to something more drastic such as moving to another state and changing jobs. But while this may be a good way of jump starting the healing process, some caution should be taken before making a drastic decision such as moving. This is especially true if you have a child custody agreement with your former spouse.

As you may already know, Washington has very specific laws in place regarding parental relocation. This goes for both custodial and non-custodial parents. As some of our more frequent readers may know from one of our articles on the subject, failing to abide by these laws can have serious legal consequences and/or may even jeopardize your parental rights.

As we mentioned in the article though, Washington law does give a noncustodial parent the right to object to a parental relocation. Although this must be done in a timely manner, if a noncustodial parent can prove that the relocation would be detrimental to their relationship with their child, then the courts may choose to do what is in the child’s best interest and block the relocation.

Because of the presumption in Washington law toward permitting child relocations in nearly all cases though, it’s important for both noncustodial and custodial parents to be prepared for the possibility of contentions or disputes during the process. It’s possible that this could prompt the need for legal counsel who can explain the law and help reach a resolution in the end that is in everyone’s best interest.