Me and my kids father have had joint custody for the past 7 years and as of 8/24/10 I received physical custody of my children. He has visitation rights every other weekend and summers.

I want to relocate to a house I have in Florida due to economic issues. I am not able to afford living in NY anymore, Florida is much more affordable. The father has violated and not followed his court order visitation time. He has not seen nor spoken to the kids in a month now. I am going for relocation next week in court. The children want to move to Florida they are 12 and 14 years old. What are my chances?

I would think that since it is economically beneficial , which is good for the kids too, (and primary consideration should be their well being) your chances should be better than good.
JMO. I am no legal expert.

I am hoping for the best... what if months pass and he never has contact and I leave anyway... what can happen and can I fight it?

This may be better served in the " Family Law " category , I don't want to mislead you or build false hopes.

I will check. Don't repost there. It will be moved by the moderator if appropriate.

Me and my kids father have had joint custody for the past 7 years and as of 8/24/10 I received physical custody of my children. He has visitation rights every other weekend and summers.

I want to relocate to a house I have in Florida due to economic issues. I am not able to afford living in NY anymore, Florida is much more affordable. The father has violated and not followed his court order visitation time. He has not seen nor spoken to the kids in a month now. I am going for relocation next week in court. The children want to move to Florida they are 12 and 14 years old. What are my chances?

Me and my kids father have had joint custody for the past 7 years and as of 8/24/10 I received physical custody of my children. He has visitation rights every other weekend and summers.

I want to relocate to a house I have in Florida due to economic issues. I am not able to afford living in NY anymore, Florida is much more affordable. The father has violated and not followed his court order visitation time. He has not seen nor spoken to the kids in a month now. I am going for relocation next week in court. The children want to move to Florida they are 12 and 14 years old. What are my chances?

No one can tell you what your chances are. It all depends on what the judge feels is in the children's best interests.

Why was this issue not addressed previously? August 24th was only three weeks ago - you had to have been aware of your financial situation at that time.

My best guess at this time is that the courts are not going to want to modify this order again after such a short amount of time has passed.

Can you tell us how he has violated the court order? Simply not taking the children is not a "violation" - visitation is a right, not an order.

Merely not seeing them for a month is not really that much, esp if he has been very active in their life up to that point.

Also where their issues that allowed you to get custody after years of joint custody ?

If he has had a fairly regular visits and been paying support, I would say I doubt they will allow it, but that is my guess, and all it can be, Even which judge you get can make a difference, as each will have personal view points used when they rule.

Various threads merged, so some answers may seem confusing since they were posted without all the info

Please don't start multiple threads for the same question, as noted your threads have been merged.

Also as noted no one can predict what a court will do. If the judge feels the move will be in the best interests of the children he may grant the move but give the father different visitations like summers and holidays rather than weekends.

However, if you move without the approval of the court you will be in contempt of court. The court can force you to move back or change custody.