By 1981, every state had adopted Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act (UCCJA). This Act sought to prohibit parental forum shopping when non-custodial parents would look for a forum that may render a favorable result. The UCCJA sought to
- establish jurisdiction over a child custody case in one state; and
- protect a custody order of that state from modification in any other state, so long as the original state retains jurisdiction over the case
If a non-custodial parent cannot take a child to another state and petition the court of that state for a favorable modification of an existing custody order, the incentive to run with the child is greatly diminished. Yet this uniform law presented a number of problems.
Attorney Gunnar J. Gitlin addresses those problems in this primer on the UCCJEA and the so-called Hague Convention.
The Gitlin Law Firm provides this updated article including a current resource bibliography at the end of the article with links of interests to lawyers wanting to understand how this important law works.
