Moving away

Not been on here for quite a while due to work but could really do with some advice!!!

Seperated from STBXH Nov 2010, have final hearing for children end of April, (supervised visits only at the moment due to abusive husband, very long and complicated!) final hearing for finances/house mid June (H living in FMH as refusing to move out, me and 3 children living at my mums, very cramped etc, desperately trying to get back home, STBXH refused in FDR to agree to mesher order even though Judge advised it)

I have met someone new who lives away (3hrs) not looking at immediately, but in the future am considering moving to be nearer as he is unable to get work in my area. Where do I stand on moving the children? At present, only my youngest wants any contact. My eldest 2 (one from previous relationship is almost 18 so can make up own mind, and 12 year old who am pretty certain courts are not going to make contact happen) Youngest is 9 and has supervised contact twice a month. STBXH is currently being risk assessed and I have been told that social worker is going to advise against unsupervised. Am I entitled to move away? Will it be my responsibility to get my child to contact every fortnight if I do? Don''t want to get my hopes up of moving and then come across lots of extra problems and end up being disappointed!!

If anyone can help and have any extra advice I''d be really grateful

Thanks x

You are entitled to live wherever you wish to. In exceptional circumstances, a coutrdoes have the power to nake orders forbidding you to move the children out of a specific ara, but this woud usually only be done where it was necessary as a holding position (for instance, where a move would mean a significant change to contact / residence arrangments, and the court orders that those changes are not made until a new order has been agreed) or where there are specific, extraordinary reasons not to allow the children to be moved - this might include where a child had very complex health needs and the move would mean they could not easily see their specilist, or could be where a court felt the the move was primarily motivated by a wish to stop contact.

Genrally, if you want to move, you will be able to, but you will need to look at how it will affect contact. There is no hard and fast rule about who is responsble for travel, but as the cotnact is designed for the children''s benefit, the impact on them will be the biggest factor.

A lot may depend on what contact is taking alce by that time. If you and your ex live 3 hours apart, it may be unreasonabel to expect the children to do a 6 hour round trip for 2 hours contact. If they are by that time having full weekends with him, it is much less unreasonable for that to involve the extra travelling. Both parents have an obligation to support cotnact so it is usually fair for the responsibility for travel to be shared. It might, for instance, be reasonable for Ex to collect the childrne at the start of the contact, and for you to pick them up from his at the end, or for you to take it in turns.

If you do move away, his liability for child maintenace may fall as the increased costs to him of contact may be taken into account.