Two states, one child. Which court decides?

When parents live in different states, you cannot just file in whichever court you like. Before any judge decides who gets the child, the courts have to settle a threshold question: which state has authority over this case. File in the wrong state and you can lose months and a lot of money before anyone touches the actual custody question. That is why we always sort out jurisdiction first.

What the UCCJEA is

The UCCJEA is a law nearly every state, including Virginia, has adopted to prevent parents from racing to courts in different states for a friendlier ruling. It sets clear rules for which state decides custody, so two courts do not issue conflicting orders over the same child. Because the rules are uniform, they work the same way across state lines.

The home state rule

The core idea is the child's home state. In most cases, the home state is where the child has lived with a parent for at least the six months before the case starts. The home state generally has the authority to make the initial custody decision. For a child under six months old, the home state is usually where the child has lived since birth.

Once a state decides, it usually keeps control

After a state makes a custody decision under the UCCJEA, that state generally keeps continuing authority over the case, even if a parent later moves. This stops a parent from moving away and then trying to reopen custody in a new, more convenient court. There are exceptions, and figuring out whether they apply is its own analysis.

Enforcing an order across state lines

The UCCJEA also makes it easier to enforce a custody order from one state in another. If you have a valid Virginia order and the other parent is in a different state, or you have an out-of-state order you need honored here, the law gives you a path. We handle both the jurisdiction fight at the start and the enforcement work later.