Legal Question in Family Law in Washington

If you have a true 50/50 parenting plan where both parents are listed as the primary residential parent, then you need to bring a petition to modify the parenting plan. Normally, if you are the primary residential parent and the other parent has visitation, you need to give a 60 day notice of intent to relocate and if the other parent files a written objection, that starts what is known as a move away case. In move away cases, the primary residential parent is presumed to be able to move, but that is a rebuttable presumption.

The objecting parent has the burden to show that the harm to the children from moving is not overcome by any benefit to the move. Most of the time, in cases where someone is offered a job with higher wages, that objection is likely to be overrule, but I caution you, that each case is unique and these cases turn on the individual facts of each case.

In a 50/50 setting, there has been case law in Washington (so it depends on which appellate jurisdiction you live in) appellate cases that say you don't move away as in a normal setting, described above, but instead need to do a full parenting plan modification.

In this setting, given that both parents are 50/50 the question is who now gets the child 90% of the time and who loses out and has to start paying much higher child support than they pay now, if anything. If you are the moving party, you have a tough fight on your hands, but again, each case is unique and turns on its own facts.

Your best bet is to hire local counsel in your county and start from there.