Oklahoma Relocation Involving Minor Children Are Complicated
Video Transcribed: My name is Jason Lile, and I am a Dads Rights lawyer in Tulsa. I wanted to talk to you today about something that comes up often in many of my cases for my clients, and that is relocation.
When one parent who’s entitled to visitation in some custody over a child or children wants to relocate more than 70 miles away from where they live or outside the jurisdiction, which is the county where your paperwork is, or your case is, then it triggers the relocation law in Oklahoma for children. And that law has some very specific requirements as to what you have to do to relocate and what you can do if someone’s going to relocate with your children.
So, first of all, you should understand that if you have paperwork, you need to know and have counsel to tell you whether or not there’s a primary physical custodian designated in that paperwork because, for the primary physical custodian, there’s a rebuttable presumption that those children will relocate with that parent. So if the non-primary physical custodian is relocating, that’s a very different situation than the primary physical custodian relocating.
Second, you should know if you are moving and you’re the primary physical custodian; there’s a very specific requirement under the law that you must follow. And that is to write the other parent so to submit in writing as close to 60 days or more before you leave as possible, where you’re going, why you’re going, and propose a new visitation schedule that could be possible given the relocation. And if you don’t do that can work against you in your custody case.
If you’re the parent who’s not relocating and you find out through one of these letters or word of mouth or whatever that the other parent is relocating and intends to take the children with them, then if you’re not the primary physical custodian, you have a right to ask for a hearing.
That hearing has to be held within 30 days of you finding out that the relocation’s happening, and you can object, but you cannot object to this relocation just because you don’t want it to happen. Specifically, you have the right to object if you feel like or have proof that that parent is only doing this because they want to interfere with your relationship with your child or children.
And that’s problematic if they’re doing it for a job; it’s borderline if they’re doing it because they have more family support there, et cetera. If they’re marrying somebody who lives in that area, something like that. So you need a good aggressive representation if you want to object to that relocation because the evidence needs to be collected and presented. Well.
So if you have any questions about this or ever need a Child Custody Attorney for Fathers in Oklahoma or a Child Support Lawyer For Men in Tulsa, please contact dads.law.
