Legal Question in Family Law in Texas

I am in the process of having my Divorce Decree amended to have a Standard visitation clause put into place in the State of Texas. The case was moved from one county to another, where I presently live. During the transfer my ex filed a Notice of Foreign Judgement on the original divorce decree in the state of Florida. A FL lawyer told me that that meant nothing but that the original decree was enforceable in Florida and that is it and nothing had to be done on my side. Now I re-filed the amendment papers in Texas and my ex's lawyer is saying that the Notice of FOreign Judgement automatically transferred the case to Florida. Is this true?


Asked on 11/20/13, 10:05 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

This is sort of a messy issue but yes, the original court in FL has jurisdiction over modification of the child issues. You can have the case transferred to TX if that is where the children live and proceed with the modification from there if you can prevail on the jurisdictional issue. If the children primarily live with the other parent then it's doubtful you will prevail on transferring jurisdiction.

I am not sure I agree that Texas courts will "automatically" ship the case off to Florida but your ex certainly could request it and the Texas court could deny jurisdiction over the modification on its own accord.

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Answered on 11/20/13, 10:58 am


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