Rules on One Parent Moving

What are the rules when you are divorced and have established who has residence & contact and the other parent decides to move away, whether it be hundreds or thousands of miles, town, county or country?

Does it make a difference if you have shared residency with joint parental responsibility?

When you cannot control the actions of the other parent and it seems you are the only parent offering stability and regular contact - how does the judge view this?

Parental Responsibility gives parents equal responsibility and rights to carry out their responsibility such as being consulted about where children go to school. Residence or shared residence determines where a child lives.

The courts generally take the view that preventing a parent from moving in the UK is inappropriate unless the move is to somewhere inaccessible or the motivated by a desire to frustrate contact with the the other parent.

Regardless of whether or not there is shared residence the courts will look at the reality of the situation and if there is 50:50 or almost equal shared care it might be decided less disruptive to education and relationships with friends and extended children for the children to remain with the parent who isn''t moving.

Consent from all those with PR for a child or permission from the courts is required to move a child abroad permanently and there is a slightly different criteria applied by the courts if there is shared residence although the interests of children is still paramount. It needs to be shown that arrangements for accommodation, education, finances, contact and travel are well thought out, feasible and practical.

When you cannot control the actions of the other parent and it seems you are the only parent offering stability and regular contact - how does the judge view this?

The importance attached to contact shouldn''t be underestimated.
Children who are insecure about their natural parentage and identity tend to grow up with low self esteem leading to emotional and behavioural problems later such as dysfunctional relationships in adulthood.

Even if a parent''s behaviour leaves much desired by most peoples standards seeing and knowing that parent is in the vast majority of cases better for children than no contact. In less than 1% of cases is no contact ordered.