Ocean Springs Child Custody Lawyer – are you moving?

Ocean Springs Child Custody Lawyer – Moving?

Are you moving after your Ocean Springs divorce or child custody case, what can happen?

It depends.

Where are you going to move?

Are you moving to Alaska?

Are you moving to a different country?

This is REALLY going to impact to Ocean Springs Child Custody case after it is over.

So, let me tell you a story about moving after an Ocean Springs Child Custody case.

Stephanie Scott and Nicholas Boudreau marry in Maryland in 2013.

Stephanie and Nicholas have two children, Brittany in 2013 and Bobby in 2015.

Both Stephanie and Nicholas are in the United States Air Force.

In 2017, the Air Force sends Stephanie to South Korea for one year.

During her tour, the children live with Nicholas in Maryland. This same year, Nicholas also gets a position
at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi for a four-year commitment through March 2022.

He was later given the choice of completing a three-year commitment with the fourth year being
optional.

In March 2019, the couple divorce in a Circuit Court in the State of Maryland. Each gets joint legal and joint physical custody.

Soon after, in May 2019, both parents move to Mississippi and this is where you might need an Ocean Springs Child Custody Lawyer as the case is now starting.

Stephanie has the Maryland divorce judgment enrolled in Mississippi, then requested modification of the joint physical custody arrangement.

Enrollment is a process where the Mississippi Court recognizes the Maryland Court Order.

She asks the chancery court to award her primary physical custody of the children subject to
Nicholas’s visitation.

Finding on its face, this complaint fails to establish a material change adverse to the child or one that would render their current shared custody schedule unworkable so as to trigger modification,” the chancery court denied Stephanie’s petition.

However, the chancery court judge did modify the custodial schedule to a 5-2-2-5 schedule, giving Nicholas custody Monday
through Wednesday of every week and every other weekend, and Stephanie custody.

Stephanie remarries in 2020 and Nicholas remarries in 2021.

In 2022, Nicholas files a petition for modification of custody.

Nicholas gets a job with the United States Space Force and was moving to Colorado which is why he wants this change.

While she sought to dismiss Nicholas’s claim, Stephanie agrees custody should be modified based on the material change of his relocation.

During the trial, the chancellor heard testimony about how present the two sets of parents were in the lives of the children. Nicholas and his wife attend all practices, games, and events of the children’s sports and other extracurricular activities, except dance.

Whereas Stephanie was the primary parent who took Brittany to dance class. But in general Stephanie did not attend sports practices during Nicholas’s custodial time, nor had she attended all of the games.

Notably, Nicholas’s wife testified she had attended so many practices and games that they ran together so she wasn’t sure if Stephanie was missing games or practices or both. In contrast, Stephanie’s husband did not regularly attend with Stephanie.

Bobby also attends therapy for adjustment disorder with depressed mood.

Nicholas’s wife attends therapy sessions and practices coping skills learned in therapy with him. Both parents would go with him—and while his stepmother was always there, his stepfather rarely was.

After the trial, the chancellor found it was “not in the best interests of the children to modify joint physical custody or joint legal custody.

Nonetheless, the trial court considered it necessary to modify the custody schedule due to the relocation of Nicholas. The court further found it was “in the best interests of the children to reside with Nicholas . . . for the majority of the time and for Stephanie . . . to exercise her custody of the children primarily during the summers and holidays as the schedule of the children allows.”

Nicholas was also granted “tie-breaking authority” if the parties cannot agree on major life decisions of the children. Further, the chancellor stated that if Stephanie ever moved closer to the children, she may petition the court for a modification of the custody schedule again to grant her more parenting time.

Ocean Springs Child Custody Lawyer | Moving Legal Mumbo Jumbo

This case gets appealed to the Mississippi Court Of Appeals.

So what’s the legal mumbo jumbo that the Mississippi Court of Appeals looks at on this Ocean Springs Child Custody Lawyer case?

Here it is:

Generally, the mere moving of the custodial parent does not constitute a material change in circumstances for child custody modification purposes.

But it is the effect the move has on the child and the custody arrangement that is dispositive.

This Court has found even a short move can result in a material change in circumstances where the move causes the custody agreement to become impractical.

A custody schedule has the characteristics of a visitation schedule, and to modify a visitation schedule, it must be shown that the prior decree for reasonable visitation is not working and that a modification is in the best interest of the child.

As in all matters relating to a minor child, the primary consideration with a visitation schedule is the best interest of the child, starting from the presumption that where possible, that best interest is served by maintaining a viable relationship with both parents.

The Court says, it is first important to emphasize a fact found by the trial court, which provided a lens through which the relocation was viewed: These parents are both good parents and do not seem to have a discernible problem with parenting skills.

Both parents are also longtime members of the military and have served and continue to serve our country—and the realities of their military service mean their families have been repeatedly uprooted by tours of duty and assignments to different bases. As the trial court put it, Both of them are accustomed to a lifestyle of relocating.

The trial court explained how Nicholas’s current wife testified that Nick applied to the newly created Space Force along with almost everyone else they knew.

One of the reasons was that he believes he will not be moving from Colorado as long as he is an active member of the Space Force, which will be, according to his testimony, a minimum of eight . . . years, if not longer.

Further, Nick plans to stay active duty at least 20 years, if not more, before retirement and will not deploy or transfer to a new base as a member of the Space Force, so he would not be required to move.

Accordingly, the trial court granted Nicholas physical custody with the expectation that the otherwise unpredictable circumstances of military life
would be more settled after this relocation to Colorado.

Stephanie protests this finding on appeal, arguing the move to Colorado would be disruptive for the children and was not in their best interests. But this misses the mark, as the trial court was fashioning a remedy that would hopefully ensure more long-term stability for the children given Nicholas’s more settled expectations he would not be relocating again as a part of his military service.

Stephanie points out that she was finished with her military service and it was absolutely her settled purpose to remain in Mississippi, but the trial court
acknowledges she moved twice after leaving the service and worked at two different schools.

In looking at the Albright case (there’s that case again, if you haven’t read it, do so immediately), the trial court emphasized, Stephanie specifically tells the therapist that she does not want to co-parent but rather parallel parent. HINT: Do NOT do this.

Further, when required to attend a parenting class, Nicholas and his wife attended weeks of parenting and marriage classes through their church, whereas Stephanie merely attended a four-hour online parenting course. HINT: Do NOT do this either.

The proof at trial was that Stephanie and her mother had a “falling out” and did not speak for approximately seven months. During this time, Stephanie’s mother spoke to the grandchildren on FaceTime, but did not spend time with them in person. Notably, Stephanie’s mother testified that because she and her daughter previously often spoke a few times a day, this separation was “particularly painful.” During this same time period
Nicholas gave up his week of spring break with the children so that they could spend time with their grandmother. For these reasons, the chancellor found that Nicholas’s “willingness to give up his time with the children to promote family unity” showed greater moral fitness.

See what Nicholas does there by giving up his spring break? THAT IS CO-PARENTING and Judges like it.

Ocean Springs Child Custody Lawyer | What Should You Do?

So as your Ocean Springs Child Custody Lawyer Expert what am I telling you to do?

I’m telling you to make sure you say you want to co-parent.

I’m telling you to make sure you not only say you want to co-parent but your ACTIONS prove you want to co-parent.

I’m surprised if Stephanie has a lawyer she was not told this.

Of course, all of the this could have happened before she hires an Ocean Springs Child Custody Lawyer, but I cannot tell.

Whatever you do, read my FREE Book, BEFORE you hire a lawyer, I reveal secrets that lawyers don’t want you to know!