Marsha worked straight through each of the pregnancies. She is an executive vice president and never had the chance to take time off. Bob has a high-level job, too, with no time to take off, either. But the two of them shared all of the work at home so they never thought twice about it. One of them was always there for the children.
They were happy...until the day that one of them received a job offer in another state. Now what?
First, before everything else, Bob and Marsha need to get their children to a minister or a therapist who specializes in cases like this. Relocation is tough on children.
The law takes this into consideration. Pennsylvania's custody law is found at 23 Pa.C.S. 5303. One factor in custody decisions is stability and consistency. Given a choice between disrupting the lives of the children or keeping their lives the same as they had been, Pennsylvania courts will keep the children's live stable.
But if greater opportunities are available for the children in the new location, the Courts will allow the children to be relocated. The opportunities could be anything, but often the strongest are educational.
Some of the other factors for custody include such things as:
1) extended family, siblings, friends and a support network as well as the willingness of one parent to include the other in the child's life as much as possible;
2) the duties toward the children that each parent performs, such as driving them to school each day and making accomodations for special needs or abuse perpetrated by one parent against the children.
3) the preference of the children. These are considered in light of the maturity and reasoning of the child.
Does it matter, do you think, that Bob and Marsha are not married? What about whether it is Bob or Marsha who wishes to relocate to another state?
No, these issues are irrelevant from a legal standpoint. If Bob and Marsha do not mind paying more in taxes, they can stay together without marrying.
The important issue is the town to which Bob or Marsha wishes to relocate. If Bob or Marsha feel inspired by the Unabomber to move to a log cabin in one of the more remote parts of a less developed state, live without electricity or running water, and refuse to teach the children mathematics, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania will likely grant custody to the other parent.
If Bob and Marsha currently reside in Langhorne, Newtown or Doylestown in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and one of them wishes to relocate to Camden or Newark, New Jersey, where the current violent crime rate is fairly high compared to Bucks County, the Commonwealth will most likely try to keep the children in Bucks County.
On the other hand, if the parent who wishes to relocate with the children will be in a good suburb of San Francisco or a town in the Catskills in New York, the decision will be much more difficult to make. Do the children have any family in the new location? Are the schools there better?
In summary, relocation cases present tough decisions for judges to make. Good representation of the case is important. In Pennsylvania, a relocation case can take a full year to make it through the court system. Such cases start in the family master's office. The family master will work hard to get the parties to come to an agreement before sending the case on through the system.
The best answer of all is for the parties to get two experienced attorneys to negotiate an agreement without ever going to the family master. Mediation is also a great alternative.
The key is for both parties to realize that the other party has rights and be ready to negotiate. A mediator or two attorneys can draft an agreement that is the same as what the court system will order, but the parties will walk away with more money in their pockets and an agreement that each is happy with.
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