A new case, Boland v. Boland, explains the framework for a court to evaluate a motion to modify custody. A party seeking to modify custody must support their motion with an affidavit stating the relevant facts supporting the requested modification. The district court must accept the facts in the moving party's affidavit as true, disregard contrary allegations in the other party's affidavits, and consider the other party's allegations only as explanations or contextualizations. Next, the district court must determine if the moving party has made a prima facie (evident at first sight) showing for modification. If there is a prima facie showing, then an evidentiary hearing will occur.
What does this mean? It means that the party wanting to change custody must show in their affidavits that there are legal grounds for modifying the custody. There are four statutory factors that the moving party must establish before the court will find a prima facie showing:
1. A change in circumstances;
2. The modification is necessary for the child's best interests;
3. That the child's present environment endangers his/her physical or emotional health, or emotional development; and
4. That the harm from changing custody outweighs the advantage of the change.
These four factors can be difficult to prove but it all depends on the facts of the case.
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