Legal Question in Family Law in New York
Three state mess
I was living in Arkansas when I filed for divorce. The wife was in Pennsylvania (she deserted me). Subsequently I moved to New York. Last September (2004) her attorney requested, and was granted, a dismissal because neither party was a resident of Arkansas. I was told that I needed to be a resident of New York for 2 years before I filed the divorce action here and was waiting for that when the Arkansas OCSE filed a motion to reopen the case in Arkansas by having the dismissal dismissed. There is now a court date scheduled for April. Can they do that? I am totally lost here.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Three state mess
It IS confusing. Because you refer to the Office of Child Support Enforcemene, I assume there are children involved? Did the Arkansas OSCE reopen the case for purposes of pursuing child support? This may have nothing to do with the divorce. However, it is difficult to answer this without seeing the papers and knowing on what grounds the case, which may have been dismissed "without predjudice" the first time, is being brought. The question is, do you want the Arkansas court to hear the case? If you do not, you must contact an attorney down there and find out what your options are in terms of appearing for the sole purpose of contesting the Arkansas court's jurisdiction. In any case, you need to get some representation down there so they don't make a decision by default which involves you.
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