National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws

211 E. Ontario St., Suite 1300, Chicago, IL 60611
tel 312-915-0195, fax 312-915-0187

For Immediate Release

IMPORTANT NEW CHILD CUSTODY LEGISLATION ENACTED IN 21st STATE

June 15, 2000- Colorado has become the 21st state to adopt important new legislation which is part of the continuing effort to stem the epidemic of child kidnapping by warring parents. The Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (UCCJEA), HB 1262, was signed into law by Governor Bill Owens on June 1. The UCCJEA, promulgated by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws in 1997, has now been enacted in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia.

The UCCJEA is a revision of the 1968 Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act (UCCJA), which was approved by the ULC in 1968 and adopted in every state. The revision is necessary to bring the act into compliance with federal statutes such as the Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act (PKPA) and the Violence Against Women Act, and to bring consistency to varying court interpretations.

The UCCJEA significantly eliminates the conflicts and problems which surround interstate custody and visitation cases and, most importantly, includes provisions for enforcing interstate custody orders, an issue the original UCCJA did not address. The enforcement provisions are aimed at the continuing problems of child abduction, concealment and evasion when parents and families are at war with each other.

The UCCJA always provided that the principal place to make a child custody determination was the home state of the child. The "home state" is defined as the state where the child resides when the custody proceeding begins, or the state where a parent resides if the child is absent but has lived in the state within the previous six months. But the UCCJA does not give a priority to the home state over other states that have another basis for taking jurisdiction. The new UCCJEA establishes such a priority.

The new act further provides that a state which makes the initial custody determination has continuing exclusive jurisdiction, so long as a party to the original custody determination remains in that state. Continuing exclusive jurisdiction was not a provision in the original UCCJA, although the federal PKPA later recognized the concept. Under the new act, a state with continuing exclusive jurisdiction is the only state in which a custody order can be modified. If that state determines that another state has a more significant connection to the child, it may relinquish its authority.

UCCJEA also clarifies how and when emergency jurisdiction should be used, allowing a court to take temporary jurisdiction even if it is not the home state. A court may make such an emergency determination if the child is present in the state and has been abandoned, or is subjected to or threatened with mistreatment or abuse. This provision also extends the emergency jurisdiction provision of the older UCCJA to include abuse of a parent or sibling of an abducted child.

New to the UCCJEA is an expedited process to enforce interstate child custody and visitation orders. Neither the UCCJA nor the PKPA provides for enforcement of child custody orders. At an enforcement hearing, a petitioner only needs to show a certified copy of the custody determination to be enforced, evidence of a violation by the respondent, and ask for the relief sought. The court will then decide whether the relief sought should be granted. This procedure provides an extremely swift remedy, which is crucial, as experience has shown particularly that if visitation rights are not enforced quickly, they often cannot be enforced at all.

If the enforcing court is concerned that the parent who has physical custody of the child will flee or harm the child, it is empowered by the act to issue a warrant to take physical possession of the child. The UCCJEA establishes procedures to protect children and parties in cases involving domestic violence, while creating clear rules to determine which court has jurisdiction over custody and visitation cases.