Defining A Substantial Change Of Circumstances For Custody Modification

After a divorce or child custody determination, one thing that frequently comes up is the desire to modify the court’s order.

It is well understood that child custody is always modifiable until the child reaches the age of 18. And while that sounds simple enough, the court will often reject petitions for change citing that there has not been a substantial and material change of circumstances since the entry of the last order.

In this excellent blog posting, Mat Camp addresses the two questions this raises: What constitutes a substantial and material change, and when does this change have to occur?