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How to Modify Child Custody in Mississippi

Reviewed by DocDraft Legal Team · Mississippi · Last updated October 7, 2026

Mississippi created a rebuttable presumption of joint custody with equally shared parenting time in 2026, then wrote modifications out of it in the same subsection. Changing child custody here means asking the chancery court that entered your existing custody or visitation order to change it, because something significant has happened since the chancellor signed it. House Bill 1662, approved by the Governor on April 8, 2026 and effective July 1, 2026, rewrote Miss. Code Ann. 93-5-24(2). Paragraph (2)(e) limits the new presumption to initial temporary and initial final custody orders, and says it shall not be applied to modifications of any custody order entered before or after that date. The equal time presumption does not travel with you into a modification. Mississippi sets no waiting period at all: section 93-5-23 lets the court afterwards, on petition, change the decree, and every waiting period phrasing returns zero hits across all 22 sections of Title 93, Chapter 5. For a joint custody order, 93-5-24(4), renumbered from (6) on July 1, 2026, requires a showing that a material change in circumstances has occurred. The further requirement that the change adversely affect the child comes from Mississippi case law, not the Code. Procedure is where parents stumble. Your petition is triable seven days after service of process and must go out with a special summons fixing a date, time and place certain, a rule that moved from M.R.C.P. 81(d) to M.R.C.P. 4(i) on July 1, 2026. The chancery clerk fee is $85 under Miss. Code Ann. 25-7-9(2). Attorney review of your petition is available through DocDraft.

Find out where you stand in Mississippi

What is prompting the change to your custody order?

DocDraft provides document preparation, not legal advice.

How do I modify a child custody order in Mississippi?

File a petition to modify in the chancery court that entered your order, under the same cause number. Mississippi prescribes no statewide petition form, so the pleading is drafted. Ask the court to set a date, time and place certain, then serve the Form 1D or Form 1DD summons that Miss. R. Civ. P. 4(i)(5) requires.

Is there a waiting period before you can modify custody in Mississippi?

No. Miss. Code Ann. 93-5-23 provides that the court may afterwards, on petition, change the decree. No section of Title 93, Chapter 5 imposes a minimum interval, a bar on repeat petitions, or a heightened endangerment showing keyed to elapsed time. The hurdle in Mississippi is substantive, not temporal.

How much notice must a Mississippi parent give before moving with a child?

None in advance. Mississippi has no relocation statute, no mileage trigger and no advance notice period. Uniform Chancery Court Rule 8.06 instead requires written notice within five days after a party changes address, filed with the clerk of the court that entered the order, with a copy to the other party.

Which court changes a custody order in Mississippi?

The chancery court, and the judge is called a chancellor. Miss. Code Ann. 93-11-65(1)(a) gives the chancery court of the proper county jurisdiction to entertain suits for the custody, care, support and maintenance of minor children. Venue includes the county where the child is actually residing.

Mississippi custody modification at a glance

Modifying child custody in Mississippi means asking the chancery court that entered your existing custody or visitation order to change it, because something significant has happened since the chancellor signed it. Two Mississippi features shape the whole process. First, timing is never your obstacle: Miss. Code Ann. 93-5-23 lets the court change the decree on petition at any point, and Chapter 5 contains no waiting period of any kind. Second, the 2026 joint custody and equally shared parenting time presumption in 93-5-24(2) is expressly withheld from modifications by paragraph (2)(e), so a parent hoping the new law upgrades an older order has to prove a material change instead. The Code supplies that phrase only for joint custody orders, at 93-5-24(4); the adverse effect element is judge made.

A 2024 Mississippi joint custody judgment and the 2026 equal time law

Say a chancellor entered your joint custody judgment in 2024, and you have just read that Mississippi now presumes equally shared parenting time. Paragraph 93-5-24(2)(e) closes that door for you, because your order is not an initial order entered after July 1, 2026. So you build a material change instead: the other parent moved across the state in March, and the written address notice that Uniform Chancery Court Rule 8.06(B) requires within five days was never filed with the clerk, which under 8.06(E) creates a rebuttable presumption that you were not notified. You file your petition in the same cause, pay the $85 clerk fee under 25-7-9(2), obtain a Form 1D summons with a date certain, and serve it. Attorney review of your petition is available through DocDraft.

Relevant Laws

Miss. Code Ann. 93-5-23 (chancery court may change the decree on petition)

Gives the chancery court authority to make orders touching the care and custody of the children of the marriage and provides that the court may afterwards, on petition, change the decree and make new decrees from time to time. This is the no waiting period anchor, and it states no modification standard.

Miss. Code Ann. 93-5-24 as amended by 2026 House Bill 1662

The enrolled act approved April 8, 2026 and effective July 1, 2026. Creates the rebuttable presumption of joint custody with equally shared parenting time at 93-5-24(2), withholds it from modifications at (2)(e), and renumbers the joint custody modification provision requiring a material change in circumstances from (6) to (4).

Miss. Code Ann. 93-11-65 (chancery court jurisdiction and the age twelve preference)

Gives the chancery court of the proper county jurisdiction over suits for the custody, care, support and maintenance of minor children, sets out venue, and provides that the chancellor may consider the preference of a child of twelve years of age or older once both parties are found fit and proper.

Miss. R. Civ. P. 4(i) (special procedure for custody modification petitions)

Makes modification or enforcement of custody, support and alimony judgments triable seven days after completion of service of process, requires a summons returnable to a date, time and place certain in conformity with Form 1D or Form 1DD, bars default, and still requires adequate proof. Rule 81(d) now reads moved to Rule 4(i).

Uniform Chancery Court Rule 8.06 (change of address of children)

Requires each party in a custody or visitation case to keep the other informed of a full address, and to notify the clerk of the issuing court in writing within five days of changing address, with a copy to the other party. Willful failure may be contempt, and a missing clerk filing creates a rebuttable presumption.

Regional Variances

Mississippi custody modification levers at a glance

Waiting period before you may file

None. Miss. Code Ann. 93-5-23 lets the court afterwards, on petition, change the decree. A scan of all 22 sections of Title 93, Chapter 5 returns zero hits for waiting period, may not be modified, shall not be modified, not sooner than, one year after and two years after. There is no repeat petition clock and no endangerment escape hatch, because there is nothing to escape.

The only numeric clock in the custody chapter

Miss. Code Ann. 93-5-34(3)(a), and it runs off an external event rather than off your order. A temporary custody order covering a service member parent's absence ends no later than ten days after that parent returns, and 93-5-34(3)(b) bars the deployment and the resulting schedule disruption from counting as a change of circumstances.

Standard to change an order

Split between the Code and the case law. Miss. Code Ann. 93-5-24(4) covers joint custody orders and requires a showing that a material change in circumstances has occurred. Miss. Code Ann. 93-5-23 states no standard at all. The familiar extra element, that the change adversely affects the child, is judicial; the word adverse returns zero hits across Chapter 5.

The 2026 equal parenting time presumption

Does not apply to you. Miss. Code Ann. 93-5-24(2), rewritten by House Bill 1662 effective July 1, 2026, presumes joint custody with equally shared parenting time, rebuttable by a preponderance of the evidence. Paragraph (2)(e) confines it to initial temporary and initial final orders and withholds it from modifications of any custody order entered before or after that date.

Relocation notice

No statute and no advance notice. The duty is a court rule and it runs after the move: Uniform Chancery Court Rule 8.06(B) requires written notice within five days of changing address, filed with the clerk of the issuing court, including the cause number, with a copy furnished to the other party and proof by certificate of service.

Relocation trigger and mechanism

No mileage, no state line, no school district, no duration test. Rule 8.06 fires on any change of a party's address, and applies even where no custody order has been entered. There is no objection window and no consent requirement, so this is not notice then object and not permission first. Any geographic limit comes from your own order.

Court, forms and filing fee

Chancery court, under Miss. Code Ann. 93-11-65(1)(a), before a chancellor. Mississippi prescribes no statewide modification petition form; Appendix A to the Rules of Civil Procedure lists only summons, default and subpoena forms. The fee is $85 under Miss. Code Ann. 25-7-9(2), which names modification expressly, plus $40, $10 and $5 statutory add-ons.

Procedural screen and the child's wishes

No affidavit screen. Adequate cause returns zero hits across the Rules of Civil Procedure and across Chapter 5. The gate is service: Miss. R. Civ. P. 4(i) requires a Form 1D or Form 1DD summons with a date certain and sets trial seven days after service. On preference, 93-11-65(1)(a) says the chancellor may consider a child of twelve or older, after finding both parties fit and proper.

Suggested Compliance Checklist

Confirm which Mississippi order you are attacking

Before you draft anything days after starting

Find the chancery court and cause number on the face of your judgment, and note whether it awards joint custody. That answers which provision governs, because Miss. Code Ann. 93-5-24(4) supplies the material change language only for joint custody orders while 93-5-23 states no standard.

Rule out the 2026 equal parenting time presumption

Before you draft anything days after starting

Check the entry date of your order against Miss. Code Ann. 93-5-24(2)(e), which limits the joint custody and equally shared parenting time presumption to initial temporary and initial final orders and withholds it from modifications. Pleading the presumption in a modification invites a motion you will lose.

Assemble dated proof of the change

Before filing days after starting

Collect records that postdate your order: school and medical files, messages, work schedules, and the clerk's docket if an address notice under Uniform Chancery Court Rule 8.06 is missing. Mississippi case law requires the change to adversely affect the child, so the evidence carries the petition.

Draft the petition to modify

Once your evidence is assembled days after starting

Mississippi prescribes no statewide form, so draft the petition yourself. Identify the order, plead facts arising after it, request specific schedule relief, and ask the court to set the matter on a date, time and place certain. Attorney review of your petition is available through DocDraft.

File in the existing cause and pay the clerk

Promptly, since the court sets your hearing date days after starting

File with the chancery clerk under the original cause number. Miss. Code Ann. 25-7-9(2) sets an $85 total clerk fee for a civil case that includes modification, and Uniform Chancery Court Rule 9.01 requires the cost deposit with the petition, with an additional deposit possible under M.R.C.P. 3(b).

Obtain the Rule 4(i) summons with a date certain

At filing, before any service attempt days after starting

Ask the clerk or court administrator for a summons returnable to a date, time and place certain in substantial conformity with Form 1D or Form 1DD, as Miss. R. Civ. P. 4(i)(5) requires. Serving an ordinary summons on a modification petition will cost you the setting.

Serve, file proof, and keep following the current order

Before your hearing date days after starting

Complete service of process and file the return, because Miss. R. Civ. P. 4(i)(2) counts the seven days from completion of service. Bring full proof even if no answer is filed, since 4(i)(3) forbids default. Obey your existing order until the chancellor signs a new one.

Frequently Asked Questions

Other Mississippi guides

Adverse Possession in Mississippi: Ten Years and the Chancery Clerk Notice

Asset Protection Planning in Mississippi (2026)

Dealing With Debt Collectors in Mississippi (2026)

Expunging a Criminal Record in Mississippi (2026)

Filing a Workplace Harassment Complaint in Mississippi

Filing Chapter 7 Bankruptcy in Mississippi (2026)

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