Custody & Kidnapping

In general, there are often two reasons why a person may want to transfer a court order from one state to another. One reason that a person may want to transfer an out-of-state order is that s/he wants to be able to enforce the order (if there is a violation of it) in his/her new state as opposed to going back to the state where the order was issued. Generally, the first step to enforcing an order is to register it with the court. Sometimes, this may be referred to as “domesticating an order” or just “registering an order.” If a person needs to enforce an order that was violated, in many states, a person may be able to file to register/domesticate an order at the same time that s/he files a violation petition to enforce the order.

For more information on registering a court custody order from another state in NEW STATE, you can read the language of the law here: [SEE IF WE HAVE LAWS ON THE STATUTES PAGE ABOUT REGISTRATION AND ENFORCEMENT OF A FOREIGN CUSTODY ORDER - IF NOT, GOOGLE REGISTRATION OF FOREIGN CUSTODY ORDER IN HER NEW STATE TO SEE IF YOU FIND THE ACTUAL LAW] And here is the law on enforcing an out of state order in NEW STATE. [HYPERLINK TO INFO IN PRIOR NOTE] For help or advice on your specific situation, you may want to talk to a lawyer in NEW STATE. [ADD THIS IF THE CHILD DOESN’T LIVE IN THE NEW STATE - OR IF YOU ARE UNSURE, CHANGE IT ACCORDINGLY:] Specifically, you may want to ask the lawyer if it’s still possible to enforce it in your state even though the child is not living in your state.

To take a step back for a moment, I want to explain that courts are supposed to acknowledge and enforce out of state orders under a concept called “full faith and credit.” Basically, this means that an order that is properly issued in one state has to be observed and obeyed in another state or the person violating the order can be held liable. One reason for this is to prevent people from having to re-litigate cases when they move from one state to another. The second reason that sometimes people wish to transfer a court order to a new state is for the purpose of modifying (changing) the order in the new state - however, this issue can be much more complicated than just enforcing the current order. [ADD THIS IF SHE ONLY TALKS ABOUT REGISTERING OR ENFORCING THE ORDER AND DOESN’T ASK ABOUT MODIFYING: Although you did not specifically ask about modifying the order, I thought it may be helpful to have some general information about it in case that comes up in the future.]

We explain on our website about whether or not someone can modify (change) a final custody order in a new state. You can see the factors that a judge will consider when deciding whether or not the case should be moved to the new state or should remain in the state that issued the order. It is important to speak to a lawyer who is knowledgeable about inter-state custody modifications for advice. We have contact information for free and low cost attorneys in NEW STATE on our website, and also attorneys in OLD STATE. [HYPERLINK]

Also, the Legal Resource Center for Violence Against Women specializes in interstate custody matters for abused women (I don’t know if you were a victim of domestic violence or not). Their number is 301-270-1550 if you want to try to get advice on whether or not you can transfer the case to NEW STATE.