Hawkes v. Spence

¶ 1. In each of these two separate cases, 3 the family court determined that a divorced parent seeking to prevent the other parent from moving out of state with the parties’ children failed to meet the threshold requirement for modifying parental rights and responsibilities by showing a real, substantial and unanticipated change of circumstances. The family court’s decisions in these cases highlight the need for us to clarify an area of the law governing seemingly irreconcilable conflicts in which the custodial parent’s interest in building a new life with the children is often pitted against…