Legal Question in Family Law in Illinois
what is the process of a petition of jurisdiction? Can I judge refuse the request? We are looking to transfer the custodial jurisdiction of my grandchildren from SC to Cook County IL. We have custody and the court paperwork from SC states that any parent can file for custody of the children in the state of their residence; which is cook county. All the parents live in cook county, all the children were born and live in cook county and of course I live in cook county. Can the judge refuse to take jurisdiction (this was a DCFS case in SC) and if so do we have the right to appeal?
As a side note, we do not object to the parents getting custody back from us so we are not objecting to any of the motion being brought to court
1 Answer from Attorneys
You need to file a motion in SC asking that the case be transferred to Cook County. Or you might file a case in Cook County - advising the court in Cook that there is a case in SC and ask that the case be transferred. Yes a judge could refuse to take jurisdiction, but if everyone lives here that is unlikely. Did the SC court know ytou were moving to IL - it should have transferred the case at that point.