Houston Law and Interstate Custody Rights

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Often when a marriage dissolves, the immediate response of the parent moving out of the family home is to shift as far away from their estranged spouse as possible. Aside from the affects this can have on your child's emotional stability, it can also affect the processes of filing a suit by raising problems of court jurisdiction.

In Texas, your choice of where you live is not only a private issue between you and your little ones. It is also very much a legal concern. When starting a child custody case, you first are required to give notice to the other parent. Before filing a child custody lawsuit in Texas you need to determine whether the suit has been filed in the proper state and court. Texas has very definite laws to determine whether a custody case has been filed in the correct court.

It is important to note, however, that all states in the USA are governed by the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act (UCCJA). This is a directive that determines which state can make custody decisions. It sets out the rules that ascertain which state can hear a custody suit and avoids confusion, where two states could make custody resolutions involving the same child! Under this law, states must try to co-operate with one another and must recognize and enforce the custody orders of other states.

In the state of Texas, differences arise when one parent does not reside in Texas, or the child and other parent have moved out of Texas. Whether they have moved to another state or another country it is managed in the same way.

Ordinarily, the problem of which state has jurisdiction is established by where the child (on the date of the commencement of the proceeding) lives, regardless of whether the family members may have afterward moved. This includes circumstances where the child no longer resides in the state but the parents do.

Things are not always this simple however. In some disputes, the court of the state where the child resides may decline to exercise their right of jurisdiction if it is deemed that another state is a more appropriate forum.

Again, this reflects the best interest of the kids, because often a child and their parent has an important connection with a particular state, other than their mere physical presence, or were there is asubstantial amount of relevant evidence available in a particular state - evidence regarding the child's care, protection, training and personal relationships.

In other instances, the parent may have already been given the citation of the previous state and agreed to it prior to relocating interstate, allowing the original county to exercise it's jurisdiction over them.

Technically, jurisdiction of a child custody suit can be fixed in Texas even if a party has never resided in Texas! A party can be accountable to a state's jurisdiction if they had merely engaged in sex in that state, and the child was conceived as a result of that act!

Where one parent does reside in another state, the court can command them to appear before the court in person. This can be with or without the children. When the parent in this state has legal custody of the child, the court can require them to appear in person with the child.

The parent initiating the citation needs to be aware that if a non-resident-of-the-state parent is required to be present at a child custody proceeding, the court may insist that the other parent to cover travel and accommodation expenses. The child however need not be present.

Once it is ascertained that jurisdiction is appropriate in Texas, when a party or the child resides out of state, then the proper county for the dispute is determined by the general venue stipulations, as previously set out above, concerning where most of the information concerning the action exists.

Beyond that, where a court in Texas has already made a child custody decision, it has absolute ongoing jurisdiction over that result unless or until it is determined that the child or parent's significant connection with that state no longer exists and that substantial evidence concerning the child's care, protection and training now exists in another state.

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For more information on The Law in Texas and Interstate Child Custody Rights:
http://www.texaschild-custody.com/texas-law-and-interstate-custody-disputes.php?maxi

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