questions & answers

Question: When things became rocky in my relationship with the mother of my 10 month old son, i filed in court for custody/parenting time. Around 1 week after she was served my now ex girlfriend took the child and moved to flagstaff from phoenix. is she allowed to do this without giving me 60 days notice?

Answer:

Generally, following a child custody order from the court, the parent with physical custody of the child has to provide the other parent with 60 days’ notice of such a move, as stated here (http://azlawhelp.org/articles_info.cfm?mc=1&sc=1&articleid=68). Specifically, “If both parents live in Arizona, the parent with physical custody desiring to move with the child must give 60 days' notice to the other parent before the child may be moved more than 100 miles from the other parent or from the state. The 60-day period gives sufficient time to the non-moving parent to request a hearing to stop the move.”  If an existing child custody order exists and the move violates the order, a request to modify child support and/or custody would be submitted to the court that originally heard the case.
 
If no such child custody agreement exists (i.e.: because the parents decided legal and physical custody without any court orders), then the request becomes more complicated. On the same article, it states “When parents are unmarried and no order has been entered to establish parental rights, the biological father has no legal right to either custody or parenting time until paternity is established. He also has no legal obligation to pay child support to the mother until an order of paternity is entered.” Therefore, unless the parternity has been established, the rules regarding notice before a move will not apply.

To find out how the law applies to a specific situation, contact an attorney directly (http://www.azlawhelp.org/articles_info.cfm?mc=5&sc=36&articleid=151).