Information About Relocation with Child

Please do NOT Leave the state without telling your son's father if you have a custodial decree. You can be charged with contempt of court and it can cause ALL sort of problems.

Your custodial decree should spell this out. This is a legal issue and is usually straightforward. So, consult your decree or the lawyer who represented you.

PROBABLY you just have to give him notice that you are moving and provide the new address. He has a legal right to know the location of his child. Even if he's a shitty dad. Even if he's never seen him.

I also have sole legal physical custody of my daughter. I moved out of state after the divorce 7 years ago and then I moved again 1.5 years ago.

My custodial decree states that I have to provide written notification of change of address in excess of 75 miles from original address to my daughter's father within 60 days of the move date. If that is not possible, I am to notify him within 10 days of the date I made the decision to move.
**My decree states that failure to do so will result in me being charged with contempt of court up to and include reversal of the original judgement. That was STANDARD language in my state when I got custody (7 years ago).

It does not matter if he has EVER exercised his legal visitation right if you have a legal document indicating what is required by law in that state.

He can't prevent you from leaving the state. Not if you have sole custody. However, he can file for modified visitation, which would change the reimbursement amounts. But HE has to file. And he probably won't.

Just send him a CERTIFIED letter with your new address.

Dear whoever,
This letter is to inform you of the updated address of Little Johnny. His address as of <<Date>> will be 1234 etc etc.

Thanks
Mommy.

Then you're legally covered.

Good Luck.

Is it in your custody papers that you can't relocate? If not I would talk to your attourny to make sure what they say but if its not in the papers he shouldn't have a say.

Unless your custody agreement says that you cannot move without authorization from the court or in some other way puts restrictions on moving, you are free to move where ever you choose. Since he's never called or seen his son, I'd not even tell him you're moving. Do leave a forwarding address at the post office so that he can contact you if he changes his mind. If you're unsure about the court order, take it to an attorney and ask their opinion.

He, of course, could give you a hard time, personally. He could even go to court and ask for the agreement to be changed. Sounds like the possibility of that happening is minimal. You would still have been within your rights, legally and personally, to have made the move.

You would have to get written permission from either him or the court. When you do that, be sure transportation for his visitation is spelled out or you could end up be responsible for round trip costs since you are the one moving.

I think you have to legally notify him before you even think of making plans. If he has visitation, whether he uses it or not, he has a legal right to his child and you could be arrested even if he didn't care. He could just want to cause you grief. By making sure he has adequate opportunity to say he doesn't want you to move you have covered your bases. I had to run an add in the paper when we filed for guardianship of our grand kids. We didn't know the dads and didn't know how to reach them. We ran it for several weeks I think.

He should be paying child support regardless if he's seeing him or not. Unless he is willing to sign away his parental rights. Then he is giving all legal responsibility to you. He will no longer be legally responsible in any way for this child. That might be something he'd be willing to do if he has no interest in him.

I don't know if Clark County has a Family Court self help desk at their courthouse. If not, call Washoe County's, ###-###-#### and ask. I believe you need to notify the court and copy him with your pleading, but they will be able to tell you exactly what you need to do so you don't jeopardize anything.