By sarah carter

Understanding interstate child custody laws is essential when parents are considering living in separate states.

In past years, states often failed to render full faith to custody decisions rendered in other states. This lack of due credit led courts to decide the issues based only on evidence before them, thus leading to contradictory custody orders. The unfortunate result is that children were all too often kidnapped and thrown back and forth between states as victims of a lack of Interstate Child Custody laws.

In an effort to resolve the complex matter of (a lack of) Interstate Child Custody Laws, Maryland enacted a statue called the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Enforcement Act in 2004. All states and the District of Columbia have followed suit. The relatively-new Interstate Child Custody Law known as the UCCJEA implements the following standards for when a court may make a custody determination and when a court must abide by an existing custody Order from another state. Under the UCCJEA, a state may make a custody decision about a child only if:

  • the state is the child's “home” state – meaning the child has resided in the state for the six previous months, or was residing in the state but is absent because a parent has removed or retained the child in an effort to wrongfully create a new home state for custody determination
  • there are significant connections with people and substantial evidence in the state concerning the child's care, protection, training and personal relationships
  • the child is physically in the state either due to abandonment or because of imminent danger of abuse or neglect in the other state
  • no other state can meet one of the above three tests, or a state can meet at least one of the tests but has declined to make a custody decision

Even if the child is present in the state, the courts of that state cannot make a custody award without meeting the above criteria. In the event that more than one state meets the above standards, the law requires that only one state award custody, and another state may not override or modify the existing Order.

Consistency in the treatment of custody decrees is achieved by the UCCJEA. Understanding Interstate Child Custody Law also solves many of the problems previously created by disagreements regarding parental abduction (kidnapping) and over custody between parents living in separate states.