Opinion ID: 1918350
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Primary Parent

Text: Next, ALI Principles addresses the situation that brings many relocation cases to court, where the relocation will markedly change the type and/or frequency of contact between children and one parent. [7] The analysis of these situations is centered on several issues, to be dealt with before reaching the best interests inquiry. First, ALI Principles asks whether the relocating parent has been exercising a significant majority of custodial responsibility for the child. The comments explain that the provision is intended to identify situations where an impairment of the relationship between the child and the parent having the most custodial time . . . can be reasonably assumed, in most cases, to exceed the impairment of the relationship between the child and the other parent. A simple majority of 51 percent is not enough to trigger the substantial latitude this section extends to the relocating parent. A percentage between 60 and 70 percent would be reasonable. Id. § 2.20, cmt. d., at 348. This language acknowledges what is unspoken in many custody decisions, that most divorces result in an arrangement in between sole custody and joint custody. See P. Markert, Custody Relocation: More Questions than Answers Result from High Court Opinions in California and New York, 38 Santa Clara L.Rev. 521, 549 (1998); see also M. Melli, P. Brown & M. Cancian, Child Custody in a Changing World: A Study of Postdivorce Arrangements in Wisconsin, 1997 U. Ill. L.Rev. 773, 778, 779 (form of joint custody that is now 81% of cases usually involves arrangements where parents share legal custody and therefore share decision-making but child lives with mother and has visitation with father). These so-called shared parenting arrangements involve joint legal custody and physical placement with each parent, but not equal amounts of time spent with each parent. One parent is responsible for most of the primary caretaking responsibilities in these less than equal situations. Markert, supra, at 549. We should recognize the new forms of relationships that are emerging through the divorce and custody process and provide workable standards tailored to address the strains in those relationships. The ALI standards help clarify that although we may not see a custodial and a noncustodial parent, it may nonetheless be the case that the children are closer to and more dependent upon one parent than the other. This parent could be called the primary parent, but what is most important is to recognize the importance of the relationship between the children and the primary parent, however that person may be designated. The ALI standards offer a procedure for how to provide that recognition.