My question involves a child custody case from the State of: New York
Hello All! I have joint legal custody of my daughter; my ex-husband has physical, but we have been splitting time 49/51% for years with no legal intervention. The original divorce decree/custody order is from the state of Maryland; we both moved to New York state (we live about 5 miles apart), and did move the support order/parenting plan to New York. I do not, however, have a separate document stating that the venue for custody is New York, which is causing some confusion...
The situation prompting action is this: my daughter has been living with me for the past 9 months because I moved into her school district and her dad moved just outside of it. Both her father and I want to change her primary custody to reflect her current residence, as we are planning to maintain our current situation until she finishes high school. His main thing is he doesn't want it to be a huge legal hassle (we're hoping it can be accomplished in a single hearing.) Questions arising from this are:
1. Do I need to file for a change of venue from Maryland to New York? If so, how would I go about that? I don't want to lawyer up because this is friendly and that might be interpreted as hostile; after many, many years working towards a healthy co-parenting relationship, I don't want to risk it. Can I just file a modification petition and list the order number form the support/parenting agreement order issued by New York a few years back?
2. How likely (as far as anyone can guess) is New York state to take issue with an uncontested modification of custody due to change of address to facilitate consistency of school district? There is no history of issues that would demonstrate unfitness on the part of either parent.
3. I would like to request a decreased amount of support on the basis of our 51/49 time split and the fact that we split all of her costs down the middle. I know that support is not an option, but would it be reasonable to request reduced support in this case, and if so, how would one go about it? He is very financially supportive and I don't want to bleed him.
Many thanks in advance for your suggestions and feedback.![]()

