Divorce, Florida Style

by Michael H. Gora, Esquire

Q: Our daughter was born and raised in Ft. Lauderdale, but now lives with her husband of five years, and their three-year old son, in Dallas Texas. Her husband is an airline pilot, with a national airline, who is based in St. Louis. He commutes, between Dallas and St. Louis with the help of his employer.

My daughter is an accountant with a five-year career with a national firm with offices in Dallas. Her firm has offices in Miami and Fort Lauderdale. She has been told that there would like to make her a partner her in either of these Florida offices, within the next year.

Her husband says he is tired of commuting, and insists their family to move to St. Louis, where her firm has no office. At the time that he made this announcement she was about to tell him that their marriage was over. She’s pretty sure that the end of the marriage is inevitable, and that she wants to come back to South Florida. Will moving with her husband to St. Louis hurt her legal position in returning th South Florida?

A: The divorce law in each state in the United States is somewhat different from any other state. In all states, however, the courts have a particular interest in the welfare of children.

The United States Supreme Court has recognized the rights of parents to their relationship with their children. One of those rights is the right to access to a child, after a divorce, under most circumstances.

With that in mind, and applying Florida law, which might not be exactly the same as Texas or Missouri law, it would appear that your daughter would have a better chance in returning to South Florida, with the child, subject to the father’s right to visit, if she remained in Dallas, and encouraged her husband to relocate to St. Louis on his own.

If her husband first, voluntarily, moves to St. Louis, with an agreement for access to his child, based upon his ability for free flights for access to their son in Dallas, it would be much more likely that a judge would allow her to accept an offer of a better job with her firm in Miami or Fort Lauderdale.

On the other hand, if she quit her job, and moved with him to St. Louis, a judge is more likely not allow a second move of your daughter and child to Miami, as the two parents were now in the same city, and more normal access was available to the father.

The factors that judges in Florida would have to investigate start and end with the best interests of the child. Whether or not substitute access can provide the absent parent with an ongoing relationship with the child, at a price that he or she can afford is also important. A parent’s motive for moving is usually considered, as well as a comparison of the child’s opportunities for a good education and the moving parent’s wishes to return to an area of the country where she has family and a good job. The right to move with a child to another state, or even another area within a state, far from the other parent is not always granted.

Michael H. Gora has been certified by the Board of Legal Specialization of The Florida Bar as an expert in Florida Matrimonial Law, and practices with Shapiro Blasi Wasserman & Gora, P.A. in Boca Raton.