Q. I am a home health aide. My sister is terminal and lives in Texas. My former partner and I have an 18-month-old. He has limited parenting time supervised by his mother, who travels here from Texas once a month. I filed a request to move to Texas with our daughter and the judge just granted the order. All extended family on both sides live in Texas. I far better housing options in Texas, rent-free and will get paid to care for my sister. My mother can take my daughter into her home daycare.
The father has a very aggressive lawyer and as soon as the judge entered the order, he filed asking the judge to reconsider. My ex cannot leave because he is on pre-trial house arrest for upcoming charges so he wants to make us stay.
A. From a procedural perspective he had 10 days to request the trial judge to change the judgment. These motions are rarely allowed in substance, only if there is a typographical error or some minor issue. You can expect when the judge denies his motion, he will immediately file a Notice of Appeal and a motion to stay the judgment. That means a motion to prevent the terms of the judgment from taking effect until the Appeals Court rules. He has to file this motion with the trial judge. It is a high standard – essentially he has to show that he has a high likelihood of getting a reversal of the judgment on appeal for a stay to be granted. The trial judge is not going to agree that his/her decision is likely to be overturned so you can assume the motion will be denied.
Once denied by the trial judge, he has a right to ask the Appeals Court to enter a stay. The Appeals Court will apply that same high standard. So long as there are findings which support the trial judge’s decision, it will be very hard for the father to convince the Appeals Court to enter the stay.
You have a valid judgment allowing you to relocate with your child. Pack up and head to Texas without delay. Move in with your sister, start caring for her, and arrange for the paternal grandmother to have access to your daughter so she maintains a relationship with the father’s side. Then, if you have to oppose his motion, cite these facts in support of your request for a denial of his motion to stay.
Email questions to whickey@ brickjones.com