What Factors Will a Trial Court Consider if a Parent Asks to Move from the State?

In an unpublished decision, the Court of Appeals decided on April 12, 2005, that where a child’s mother proved at a de novo hearing, and the father presented no evidence to the contrary that she would lose her job if she did not accept the transfer to Tennessee, this constituted a change in circumstances sufficient to permit the trial court to revisit the prior custody order. Under the prior order, the child saw each of her parents virtually every day.

Thus, the change in circumstances, which involved a move to a distant state, necessitated a substantial change of circumstances requiring a change of custody, since it was impossible for the then-existing arrangement to continue. At the referee hearing, plaintiff mother and a personnel manager from her company testified that it was not clear that plaintiff would have to move. However, at the de novo hearing, evidence showed that the mother would be fired if she did not move and that she had exerted substantial efforts in an unsuccessful search for other employment.

A major factor in persuading the trial court to change in custody from a joint custodial arrangement to sole custody with plaintiff mother appeared to be the mother’s willingness to facilitate a close and continuing relationship with the father.

The father presented a proposal that the mother should have only two weeks of parenting time in Michigan at her sole expense. In contrast, the mother presented a proposed parenting time plan that provided for substantial parenting time for which she was prepared to pay transportation expenses

The trial court held plaintiff mother, the moving party, to the clear and convincing evidence standard, and found that she had shown by clear and convincing evidence a change in custody with plaintiff providing the child’s primary domicile was in the child’s best interest.

Poulton-Zaremba v. Zaremba, Docket No. 257376

Read more: Can a Child Ever Choose Which Parent She Wants to Live With?

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