I have 2 move 2 NY for a better career and the chance to live in a house w/a backyard/pool instead of living here in an LA apt. I am going to real estate school and will be takinng over our family biz(managing an apt complex). I need(not just want) to take our daughter with me because her mom has issues w/ drug relapsing. Mom is living in a sober living facility for the past 2 years and has stayed sober(meth/cocaine) but her history is in and out of rehabs/sober living for the last 16 years. She stays sober when there but always relapses when she gets out and lives on her own. She suffers from depression/bi polar(not taking medicine) and works as a waitress at the same restaurant she has been getting her drugs in the past. We share joint custody which is fine while we live in the same neighborhood and while she is in sober living but I feel that she needs to prove to herself, me and the courts that she is(for the 1st time in her life) able to make that transition into society and live on her own w/out relapsing before she is left to care for our daughter by herself. She was given the chance to move to NY where she is from and set up with a FREE 2 bed apt and a chance to go back to school to get her G.E.D so she is able to get a better job/career to help save up for our daughters future, but she said no. By moving back east, Our daughter will have the opportunity to grow up in a house, great neighborhood, and with all her cousins her age from both sides of the family and she will have a female influence from my 2 sisters and mother. WHAT ARE MY CHANCES IN COURT?

JB

I would think they are pretty good. Generally the courts will take the welfare of the child in account as a primary factor in a case like this.

Hello JB:

If you share joint legal custody, you can't leave the jurisdiction without violating a court order. The mother, although troubled, has NOT been declared unfit. I noticed that NOWHERE do you say that your daughter will be better off WITHOUT her mother.

At least you're not that callous. However, you certainly don't mind telling us how bad she is, and how great NY is.

I'm not buying it, and I don't think the court will either.

I'm sorry you don't have a pool. But, your daughter has a mother. I think a mother is better than a pool, don't you?

excon