Hi,

I am enquiring on behalf of my partner. Him and his ex have been separated for over two years and since separation they have shared equal custody of their child on a Mon-Tue, Fri-Sun one week and wed-thuds the following week which has worked out really well. They also share all costs of day care, medical, swimming lessons etc equally. There is a parenting plan in place that basically states these factors plus a few more general items.

Currently his ex is overseas for 6 months due to work commitments and it was agreed to that our son would stay with us full time whilst she is away and in that time spend time with her family which is happening on a continual basis. It was agreed upon by both of them when she returned she would have our son until xmas period then normal custody care arrangements 50/50 would return to normal.

Here's where the problem lies, Both our family and his ex will be moving state next year due to both their work commitments still in the same state but approx 2-2.5 hours apart. She has sent my partner an email stating that when we move she will be having full custidy of our son for the 6 month period she will be doing training and we can have him for weekends when it can be agreed to by both of them. There was never any discussion of this and myself and my partner do not want to give up our time with him. We are having another child end of this year and want the connection between our children to be close and be continual.

Does she have a right just to tell my partner that she will be having him for this period without them ever agreeing to this?
How do we go about stopping this happening. The 50/50 care arrangement has been working for the past two and half years and we would like this to continue even if it had to change to week about or fortnight about.

We are unsure what to do but considering she is in a different country we can't take it to a mediator because she won't be here and when she returns I feel it would be too late.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!


Regards

The parenting plan that is current and approved by the court is what has to be followed. The issue is that both sides have made side deals and agreements, but now they don't work.

Just inform the ex that this plan will be followed from now on, go to court to enforce if needed

ANY question on law needs to include your general locale as laws vary by area.

But assuming this parenting plan has been approved by a court, then it can only be changed by a court. So what you need to do, is go back to the court and ask that a temporary injunction be issued against the move until an alternate plan can be agreed on.

However, I can tell you the 50/50 will no longer work. You don't say if the child is of school age or not, if he is, it definitely won't work, even if he isn't, the court will take notice that your not living in the same school district will make the current plan unworkable.

The likelihood is the court will order (if you can't agree) that the mother be given primary and you will get weekends and holidays, also the whole or large part of the summer. So you should keep that in mind when trying to negotiate.