The 2016 law dramatically changed Illinois law regarding removal of children. Even the title has changed-we now call removal relocation. But we can see that the 2016 relocation statute codifies what had been Illinois caselaw. Our Illinois statute continues to pose a restrictive law for whether or not relocation should be allowed. Indeed, with the 25 and 50-mile rules as part of our statutory scheme, Illinois has one of the most restrictive laws in the States. This article has not been comprehensively updated since 2016. For a current comprehensive treatment see Gitlin on Divorce: a Guide to Illinois Family Law and its chapter on Relocation. This includes a breakdown of historical and current caselaw based upon the 10-plus factor analysis. By reviewing the statute and current caselaw, you will see that we no longer focus on indirect benefits. Rather, the through-line of our caselaw is the deference is given to the trial court’s decision. This harkens back to the language of our seminal In re Marriage of Eckert Illinois Supreme Court decision.
It is rare that we have multiple Supreme Court decisions on a a narrow area of family law law. For removal/relocation cases, we now have four! See Gitlin on Divorce for a current and detailed discussion.
