Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act

rdf:langString Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act

rdf:langString The Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (UCCJEA) is a Uniform Act drafted by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws in 1997. The UCCJEA has since been adopted by 49 U.S. States, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The Act became effective in Vermont on 7/1/2011. As of January 22, 2016, the only state that has not adopted the UCCJEA is Massachusetts. The UCCJEA vests "exclusive [and] continuing jurisdiction" for child custody litigation in the courts of the child's "home state," which is defined as the state where the child has lived with a parent for six consecutive months prior to the commencement of the proceeding (or since birth for children younger than six months). If the child has not lived in any state for at least six months, then a court in a state that has (1) "significant connections" with the child and at least one parent and (2) "substantial evidence concerning the child's care, protection, training, and personal relationships" may assume child-custody jurisdiction. If more than one state has "significant connections" and "substantial evidence...", the courts of those states must communicate and determine which state has the most significant connections to the child. A court which has made a child-custody determination consistent with UCCJEA has exclusive, continuing jurisdiction over the determination until either (1) that court determines that neither the child, the child's parents, nor any person acting as a parent has a significant connection with the State that made the original order and that substantial evidence is no longer available in the State concerning the child's care, protection, training, and personal relationships, or (2) that court or a court of another State determines that the child, the child's parents, and any person acting as a parent do not reside in the State that initially made the child custody order. The UCCJEA replaced a previous Uniform Act, the "Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act", primarily because the old act was inconsistent with the federal Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act when determining proper jurisdiction for initial custody determinations and because of contradictory interpretations of the PKPA. The UCCJEA corrects these problems. The UCCJEA also added uniform procedures to register and enforce child-custody orders across state lines.