Legal Question in Family Law in Pennsylvania

You will need a California attorney, and you will need to litigate the custody issue in California as well.

As you might imagine, this kind of thing happens a lot, and all the states have enacted something called the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act to deal with it. That law -- and all 50 states have similar versions of it -- says that child custody must be litigated in the child's "home state." The "home state" is the state where the child has *continuously* resided for the last 6 month period. Right now, that's California. The purpose of the Act is to keep one parent from crossing state lines with a child and immediately filing a custody action in an attempt to undercut another state's jurisdiction. So unless your husband agrees to Pennsylvania jurisdiction, California will be the only child custody venue for now.

Best of luck to you.

Cary B. Hall, Esquire

Law Offices of Cary B. Hall, L.L.C.

121 East Chestnut Street, Suite 205

Souderton, PA 18964

T: (267) 663-9995

F: (215) 525-4364

[email protected]

http://www.carybhall.com