Custody

If after you leave the marital home, the other parent files a petition for divorce, the judge can issue a temporary ex parte order regarding the legal custody, residency, and parenting time that will be in effect during the court proceeding.¹ It is important to note that the judge is not supposed to issue an ex parte order that changes the residency of the child from the parent who has had, in effect, sole residency of the child unless there are “extraordinary circumstances.”² So, in order to get a temporary ex parte order for custody, you may want to get help from a lawyer to be able to convince the judge that there are extraordinary circumstances or that leaving the children for a short time is not the same as the other parent having sole residency.

¹ Kan. Stat. § 23-2707(a)(3)
² Kan. Stat. § 23-2707(b)