Visitation changes because of distance

If your custody papers say "If the two parties move within 100 miles of each other, then visitation will go to 1st, 3rd, and 5th weekend" does this refer to the physical address of each person, or the distance to the town they live in.

lamomma

When people hammer out a custody agreement, the language arrived at usually is not "legal" in the sense that there is a clear definition of every term. When that happens, you have to apply common usage and the results can be a roll of the dice.

I would say that it is most likely that a court would interpret "100 miles of each other" as literal distance house-to-house, not town-to-town. As you know, and this is the reason you probably raise the question, some "towns" in Louisiana may make 20 miles difference depending on where the parties live in relation to the two towns.

lex

Driving distance is the correct answer.   

"As the crow flies" is not correct.     


This is a practical matter with regard to the transportation of the child.

Take an extreme example.  Parties live within 5 miles of each other, but on opposite sides of the Mississippi river.  The nearest bridge across is 180 miles away. 

In this example, what you would expect to be a 5 minute drive is a 6 hour travel ordeal for the child.

You should be able to find case law with regard to this issue.  The state specifies a 150 mile distance with regard to the relocation of a child's residence.  There is at least one appeals court decision specifying that the 150 mile distance is the driving distance.

Nicholas James

Ok. Well to clarify the situation. When the custody papers were done, the mom lived in texas 5 hours away. The papers stated if that if either of the two parties moved within 100 miles of each other, the visitation would go from one weekend per month to 1st, 3rd, and 5th weekend per month.  Mom not only moved closer, she moved into the state of Louisiana. She now lives exactly 105 miles from dad. I just wondered if a judge would rule in his favor because now she is in the same state and only 5 miles away from the 100 mile distance. Also, she does not drive the children all the way to him, they meet exactly half way.

lamomma

Well, first of all... why would you take this case to a judge? 

second, I wouldn't want to be the parent going in to quibble about 5 miles !

judge will rule on the 'best interests of the child' and the best interest law dictates 'equal time to the extent feasible'.  So if you take this before a judge, she will get substantially more time anyway.

Nicholas James

consider revising the transport schedule.

i prefer that the person getting the kids pick them up.

with cell phones, 1/2 meeting points are not as bad as they used to be.

Nicholas James

[My life has been crazier than a work of fiction.....who'da believed?]

I agree with Nick wholeheartedly. The person who is "receiving" the kids should always be the one travelling the full distance. i.e., 'she' is getting the kids so 'she' drives to dad's home and gets them. When 'he' is getting them back, 'he' drives to 'her' house and gets them. Eliminates much fussing over people being late and so on, potentially sitting in a car waiting for someone stuck behind a turned oer 18 wheeler, and so on.

nick is right in another aspect. the law has changed fairly recently on time sharing, and 'she' will be able to ask that the new law be applied, in which case there will be a vast increase in 'her' time with kids. Remember that if you can't split them during the week because of school -- she may get her 'half' the time in weekends and summer. That might mean dad gets them for school week and mom gets them the rest of the time.

consider the next step significantly.

3kidsmom

The whole deal is mom does not wont dad to see the kids more than one weekend a month. She will not budge on this at all. He has tried to reason with her, and yes he even offered to go all the way to pick them up. She refuses totally. I dont know how her time with the kids could increase at all, except if he has no visitation at all. He only gets to see them one weekend per month. This was due to the fact that when this modification was done her and the children had moved to the other side of Texas.

lamomma

Well, then that explains why it is 105 miles and not 95 miles...   

Dad needs to move.  Reduce the distance to less than 100 miles. Well less.

Nicholas James