Legal Question in Family Law in Florida
jurisdiction
How can we find out which state has jurisdiction? Wife and daughter live in FL and husband lives here in MD. I am the husband's fiance. Mother has not been in FL since Nov 99 but "supposedly" will be returning next week. Divorce was first filed by husband in FL but cased was dismissed by husband;he refiled here in MD; along with filing for emergency temporary custody. Mother filed herself in FL from out-of-state(currently in CA, we think). Temporary custody order granted to father but then in Dec, reversed back to mother. She skipped town and violated court order by denying visitation via phone and bi-weekly visits. Now MD judge wants to know status of FL case before he will grant a hearing here in MD. We think MD should have jurisdiction and she thinks FL should?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: jurisdiction
Your situation is legally complicated, and there are a lot of facts not included in your question. Has the mother actually moved from Florida, or is she in California for some temporary reason? How long has she lived in Florida? How long has the child lived in Florida? How long did the child live in Maryland?
Usually a state will not take jurisdiction if there is a pending action in another state, but it may be possible to persuade Florida to refuse jurisdiction and dismiss the action there if a case can be made that Florida does not have a close enough connection with the child to determine custody. No matter what the details, this is not a situation to deal with without an attorney, who is familiar with all of the facts, to represent you.
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