All but one state in the United States have adopted the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (the UCCJEA) (the exception being Massachusetts). The predecessor of the UCCJEA was the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act (UCCJA). A primary complaint about the UCCJA was that numerous custody orders could be entered in different states and forum-shopping could be more prevalent. Under the UCCJEA, the primary focus is on the home state of the child. The UCCJEA defines “home state” as: “The state in which the child lived with a parent or a person acting as a parent for at least six consecutive months immediately before the commencement of a child custody proceeding.”
In order to avoid forum-shopping and multiple states entering multiple custody orders, the UCCJEA also emphasizes exclusive continuing jurisdiction. Generally, when modifying a custody order, pursuant to the UCCJEA, the proper state in which to file the petition is the state where the order was issued unless none of the parties and the child no longer reside in that state. Therefore, under the UCCJEA, the litigants are to go back to the court of the issuing state as long as a litigant remains in the issuing state. However, under the UCCJEA, the issuing state can determine that jurisdiction should no longer be in that state.
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