Q: I'm in the process of going to court and asking permission to move out of state with my daughter.

A: We by no means can provide legal advice in particular cases. We are not the attorney for the asker and we know none of the facts. The New York court system is not an apparatus where one pushes a button and gets results as is the case, for example, in Pennsylvania. We here are an educational medium that aims to inform the public about the inner workings of the justice system. There is much to tell in the area of relocations.

The name of the applicable petition would be a relocation petition. The filing would occur in the county's family court where the child resides, and where the order of custody is entered. One of two things may happen once the asker gets before a family court judge: the truth, or a delusion.

Our nation is under a cloud of delusion these years. We have in effect laws that appear to apply in a minority of cases that involve a minority of people. One law involves the selection of judges who are elevated for their identity rather than their knowledge and skill. As these judges are run for election unopposed, they mount the bench, and implement whatever laws their political handlers tell them to implement. A relocation case may fall flat because the judge has the mindset that no noncustodial parent should be put out of his way to see his child, which is not the law. Another judge may bristle at the idea that some place is better than the current county, also not the law. Another judge may be swayed by a filibuster: a presentation of the case that is characterized by endless argumentation whether in favor of better economic opportunities in the new location, or that the noncustodial parent never sees the child, or whatever else.

As to truth, the judge may apply the correct reasoning for a relocation which is not reduced to a statute. This means in New York there is no statute to turn to for a recipe or a formula for the judge to follow in deciding a relocation case. The only guidance offered by the Court of Appeals is "best interests" which is euphemism for "parens patriae" which means the state is the parent of the child. The actual parent loses the ability to decide for her child once she sets foot into a family court. The judge takes over and responds to petitions with reasoning whether of quality or of mediocrity.

Such reasoning must take into account numerous factors that point to a better economic opportunity for the child while preserving access by the non-custodial parent. Custody practice is more difficult in New York because of this absence of nannying of the family court custody judiciary by formulas in statutes. Additionally, the appellate divisions all have "de novo" custody authority which means the appellate court can conduct its own hearings and make its own determinations as it reverses the family court's decisions and orders.

Trying all this without an attorney's review of the facts and without assistance for trial will render a dismissed petition, and possible retaliatory petitions by the noncustodial parent. The less astute clients will attack their lawyer should they lose because their facts do not line up.