Legal Question in Family Law in Maryland
If i file a "request for registration/and or enforcement of a foreign child custody determination" and an " Application for issuance of a warrant" in the state of Maryland, does that mean i am asking the state to take my children into a foster home or to grant me full legal/physical custody temporarily? I currently have joint custody with jurisdiction in the state of North Carolina. the mother is entitled to pick the children up from me for the summer , however the last time she did this she hid them from me and did not give me correct address to pick them up. had to hire a lawyer , which i cannot afford at this time. I am trying to prevent conflict. Thank you
2 Answers from Attorneys
Since your custodial orders were issued by North Carolina, you could seek modification there to better enable enforcement. If you have custody for all but the summer then you could potentially seek to have jurisdiction transferred to Maryland, or file as you indicated to enforce the North Carolina orders through Maryland where there is divergence with the orders. Maryland may be the proper jurisdiction assuming the children are enrolled in school here and live predominately within the State of Maryland.
The application for registration is your request to have MD recognize the order from NC and to take jurisdiction of the case. This should be based upon the children having established MD residency for 6 months. If that is the case and MD accepts jurisdiction, you can ask the court to either modify or enforce the order if it is then being violated. It sounds like right now everything is in place but you are concerned about a repeat of the last incident this coming summer. If the current NC order doesn't specify a pickup date and location after the summer visitation, you could ask the MD court to clarify that, and also to establish your communication/visitation rights with the children over the summer.