Chapter 5 - § 5.1 • OVERVIEW

• Jurisdiction: Colorado

§ 5.1 • OVERVIEW

All contested parenting cases are heart-wrenching in their own way, but none more so than relocation cases.

A contested relocation in which one parent wants to move with the children to a new location that substantially changes the geographic relationship with the other parent is the kind of case that an economist would call a "zero-sum game." One parent gets "zero" and the other parent gets the "sum" of everything he or she wants. The children may get none of what they want — they get to lose a parent and, potentially, move to a new home.

Put more simply, somebody wins a contested relocation and somebody loses.

Then, after the realization sinks in that one parent is going to win and one parent is going to lose, that one lawyer is going to have a great day in court and one is going to have a terrible loss, comes the consideration of the children. One way or another, regardless of which parent wins or loses, the lives of the children are going to change.

Consider a few scenarios:

1) The mother is successful in obtaining the court's permission to relocate to California from Colorado with the children. The father does not relocate with her. The children are now living in a new place and likely have changed contact levels with the father.
2) The mother is unsuccessful in obtaining the court's permission to relocate to California from Colorado with the children, but the mother nonetheless relocates without the children. The children now have a substantially changed level of contact with the mother and will be exercising at least some of their parenting time with her almost as if on a "vacation" in another state.
3) The father is successful in obtaining the court's permission to relocate to Texas from Colorado with the children. The mother, however, chooses to also relocate to Texas. The children are still living in a new place.
4) The father is unsuccessful in obtaining the court's permission to relocate to Texas from Colorado with the children. The father chooses to remain in Colorado rather than leave without the children. By this time, however, the parties have engaged in a fully litigated contested relocation case that has included a trial of one or more days, likely a parental responsibilities evaluation, perhaps formal discovery, and plenty of mud-slinging. The children, if there has been an evaluation, are aware that something is going on, and probably know that Dad wants to move them to Texas. Both parents are angry with the other

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