What the UCCJEA Means for You

Last fall a Texas mother took her two young daughters against a judge’s order. The police obtained arrests warrants to pursue the mother for interference with child custody, which is a felony in Texas. A Marine reservist, the mother posed a particularly dangerous threat for a child custody case. She is a competitive shooter and police believed she was carrying weapons and suffering from a mental health condition. The girls’ father did not see his girls until several months later, when the mother turned herself into Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) agents. A Houston family attorney is available to help you decide what child custody situation is best for you and your family under the UCCJEA.

The Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act

The Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (UCCJEA) is an act designed to make uniform a series of family laws throughout the country. The National Conference on Uniform State Laws drafted the Act in 1997 to replace an act that was nearly 30 years old. It was up to each individual state to adopt the Act and all except Massachusetts and Vermont have done so.

The law aims to deter interstate parental abductions and to establish uniform laws regarding child custody, visitation rights, jurisdiction, and enforcement. Some of the important provisions of the UCCJEA of which parents should be aware include:

• There are four basic grounds (in descending order of consideration) for a court to have jurisdiction to make an initial child custody or visitation order:
  1. Home state - where a child has been for at least six months prior to the legal action. The UCCJEA gives priority to the child’s home state,
  2. Significant connection – where a child has significant ties to a state and that state has substantial evidence concerning the child.
  3. More appropriate forum – such a jurisdiction exists when both the home state and the significant connection state decline jurisdiction in favor of another state that is more convenient.
  4. Vacuum jurisdiction – if no court meets the above three standards, another court may step in and rule on the initial custody proceeding.
• The Act authorizes courts to exercise emergency jurisdiction in cases involving child abandonment or abuse.
• There is a registration system so that states can quickly enforce and learn about custody and visitation orders that are properly in place in other states.
• Pursuant to warrants, law enforcement officials can pick up children who are at risk of a parent removing him or her from a state.
• The court and state that originally had jurisdiction will continue to do so unless: (1) the original court loses its significant connection jurisdiction, or (2) the child, his or her parents, and any person acting as the child’s parent are no longer living in the state.

Determining or altering a child custody or visitation order is a decision that will affect your family for a long time. Contact an experienced Houston divorce lawyer at John K. Grubb & Associates, PC to learn about how the UCCJEA can affect your child custody or visitation rights following a divorce.