Court Considerations for Moving A Child Out of State
The purpose of this blog is to inform the reader about the court
considerations for moving a child out of state after a divorce has been concluded.
Palatine Divorce Lawyer James Kelly explains how the court considers factors such as extended
family and best interest of the child when making its decision.
MOVING A MINOR CHILD OUT OF STATE PART IX, 750 ILCS 5/609.2(g)
A. Removal by Agreement vs. Removal by Contest in Court
II. Removal by Contest in Court
i. When the parties cannot agree as to the removal of a minor
child then the court shall after a hearing determine whether the
child should be removed. The section that controls removal
when there is no agreement as to same is Section 609.2(g).
ii. This Section states that, “the court shall modify the
parenting plan or allocation judgment in accordance with the
child’s best interests. The Court shall consider the following
factors”
1. The next factor that the court should use to determine
whether it should allow a child to be removed from the
jurisdiction is “the presence or absence of extended
family at the existing location and at the proposed new
location.” Thus, the court may be very hesitant to
remove a child from his current location if he has
grandmothers and grandfathers, older siblings, and or
aunts and uncles and cousins. On the flip side if the
child is currently located in Illinois and all of his/her
extended family live in northern Wisconsin, then
perhaps the judge may be more willing to allow the
child to be relocated to Wisconsin.
2. The court may also consider, “the anticipated impact of
the relocation on the child”. This factor is much more
nebulous than all of the other factors that we have
looked at so far. This factor will require the use of an
expert to get involved and interview the child and
perhaps perform some research that will allow the
expert to make a determination as to what the expected
impact on the child will be. The Court can do this by
either hiring a guardian ad litem or a 604.1(b)
psychologist who can interview the child and the
parties and anyone else who is in a relevant way
connected to this case. The expert would then report to
the court what he/she believes the ramifications are to a
removal and then the court would use that information
appropriately.
In the next blog we will take a look at the rest of the factors surrounding court considerations for moving a child out of state, in Illinois.
About the author:
James M. Kelly is engaged in representing clients in contested and uncontested
dissolution of marriage proceedings and bankruptcy proceedings, both Chapter 7 and
Chapter 13. James Kelly, has been practicing in the northwest suburbs of Cook County
and to a very relevant extent McHenry County, Lake County and DuPage County. James
Kelly has been admitted to the practice of law in the State of Illinois since 1994.
