The child relocation statute does not apply when the parent has relocated prior to the date of the filing of the dissolution petition. In Rolison v. Rolison the Florida Court of Appeal recently stated: “Appellant (the Father) appeals a non-final order denying his emergency verified motion to compel Appellee (the Mother) to return the parties’ minor children to Florida. We affirm the trial court’s order, which correctly found that section 61.13001, Florida Statutes (2013), Florida’s relocation statute, did not apply, as the Mother moved to Georgia before the Father filed for dissolution. The Father filed a petition for dissolution of marriage and other relief on February 21, 2014. The trial court denied the Father’s emergency motion, finding that section 61.13001 was inapplicable, because it only applied to a child’s relocation or proposed relocation during a pending proceeding.
Although the result here may be troubling, the plain language of the relocation statute applies only where a parent’s principal place of residence changes “at the time of the last order establishing or modifying time-sharing” (which is not applicable here), or “at the time of filing the pending action.” § 61.13001(l)(e), Fla. Stat. The Mother’s location was already in Georgia when the Father filed the pending action; as such, in accordance with section 61.13001, she did not have to seek permission from the Father or the court to move there…Based upon the definition of relocation under section 61.1300l(l)(e), and citing the Second District’s opinion in A.F. for support, the Fourth District, in dicta, stated that “the mother is correct in arguing that (she had already moved to Louisiana prior to the father’s filing of the petition to determine paternity or any order establishing or modifying time-sharing, then she is not subject to the relocation statute.”
To speak to a relocation attorney in Jupiter, Florida, call Matthew Jay Lane & Associates, P.A. at (561) 363-3400.