SPARC Forums

My fiance is having to take his ex back to court on a contempt charge for not allowing holiday visitation. After their divorce, she moved several states away and now she is telling him that she is going to file for a change of venue so that she will not have to travel to court hearings.

Can anybody tell me if the court will grant a change of venue from one state to another? So far all the information I have found for our state only mentions change of venue from one county to another, but has no mention of a move to another state. Anybody have knowledge of this?

Just as you have discovered 'venue' deals with one  county vs another county.  Your situation is governed by statues known as the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act or Enforcement Act (UCCJA / UCCJEA). Each state will have enacted it's own statues which may negate the intended uniformity (which gave rise to the federal statues known as Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act (PKPA).  One main purpose of these acts is to protect the CHILD and left behind parent from involvment in multi-state litigation. Jurisdiction WILL, in most situations, be the childs Home state .. where the left behind parent resides.  Attorneys love to make money fighting these jurisdictional issues.  You must check out your state statues.  The foundation UCCJA and the PKPA is documented in the articles section (bottom of page).  Here is a key excerpt from the UCCJA :

Jurisdiction to make child custody determinations. 1. A court of this state which is competent to decide child custody matters has jurisdiction to make a child custody determination by initial or modification decree only when:


(a) this state (i) is the home state of the child at the time of commencement of the custody proceeding, or (ii) had been the child's home state within six months before commencement of such proceeding and the child is absent from this state because of his removal or retention by a person claiming his custody or for other reasons, and a parent or person acting as parent continues to live in this state; or

In short, from what you described,  dad or mom needs to request modification in the home state or state of most recent action involving the child.

 I'm not an attorney .. just btdt  

That is what we suspected. Since the divorce originally took place in our state and all modifications have been handled in this state in the 4 years since the divorce, then this should still be considered the home state and she will not be able to have the hearing moved to her state.

Essentially it sounds like our state will remain the home state for his daughter unless he should move to another state. I think that will give us the security we need so that we are able to file modifications and contempt charges easily when she violates the current order.

Yes. The statues are in place in hope of preventing jurisdictional competetion thus helping to protect the child.