The Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act (UCCJA) was drafted by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State laws in 1968. Its purpose was to try to avoid situations involving competitive State court jurisdictions in child custody matters. The Act acknowledged that children were historically being shifted from State to State by parents attempting to bring the power of the court in the domicile State to Child to bear against a spouse with child custody domiciled in another State in order to finagle a more advantageous order or judgment addressing their own interests in the children. Probate courts were bouncing children around like rubber balls causing them to suffer profound emotional and physical harm. The Act was drafted to try to stop parents from playing the game of court roulette. All States and the District of Columbia have since adopted the Act. Standards have been set by way of the Act defining when a court may make an adjudication concerning child custody and when a court must defer to the child custody determinations of a court sitting in another State.
The Test for Jurisdiction over Child Custody Matters
A State may take jurisdiction over child custody issues if:
- It is the child’s home State, or the child has resided in that State for at least six months or was residing in that State but was removed by the other parent in some manner
- The child has significant connections with people, teachers, doctors and grandparents, inside the State and/or there is a significant amount of evidence in the State concerning the child’s care, protection, parental relationships and protection.
- The child is in the State and in danger of being abandoned or has been abandoned if ordered to return to another State.
- No other State can meet one of the above standard tests and if it can meet the standard tests has declined to make a custody decision.
If a State is unable to meet this base line jurisdiction tests concerning a child then even if the child is in the State it will have no jurisdiction over him to enter a child custody order or judgment. A parent that has intentionally removed a child from his home State in order to obtain custody of him will ultimately be denied custody and the child will have to return to his home State. If more than one State could meet the jurisdictional tests than the first State to formally invoke jurisdiction over the matter will retain that jurisdiction and the other State may not overrule its judgments or orders concerning child custody.
Getting Legal Help
If you are dealing with State court jurisdictional issue concerning child custody orders it would be important to contact a divorce attorney to help to resolve the issues fairly.
