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What determines where I can file a child support case?
Jurisdiction to Determine and
Modify Child Support.
Regardless of where child custody
and visitation issues may properly be litigated, in order for a state to
determine issues of child support, only that state which satisfies one of
the requirements provided in the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act
(UIFSA) in order to issue a valid order of child support.
Jurisdiction under UIFSA is
established if the person against whom a child support order is sought to
be established or modified:
(1) is personally served with process within the
state; or
(2) submits to the jurisdiction of the state’s
courts; or
(3) resided with the subject child within the state;
or
(4) resided in the state and provided prenatal
expenses or support to the child; or
(5) has caused
the child to reside in this state by the alleged obligor’s acts and
directives; or
(6) engaged in sexual intercourse in the state and the
child may have been conceived as a result of that act of sexual
intercourse; or
(7) asserted parentage in the putative father registry
maintained by the state SRS; or
(8) is subject to personal jurisdiction on any other
constitutionally sound basis.
Every state has enacted and must comply with the
provisions of the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act (UIFSA) in
determining its jurisdiction to issue orders for child support.
Once both parents and the child have moved out of the
state that issued any initial child support order, the original state
automatically loses its jurisdiction to modify any orders for child support
(although it may continue to enforce the child support orders issued by it
or any other court having jurisdiction). Instead, the parent seeking to
modify child support must
file the request for modification in the state in which that
other parent lives. Notwithstanding the fact that the amount of child
support will then be determined by that new state, the duration that child
support would be paid is conclusively established by the laws of the state
in which the child support order originated.
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