Legal Question in Family Law in Virginia
Child Custody
My step son has lived with us for 2 years. His parents were never married and neither had legal custody. My husband filed for custody 3 weeks ago. After receiving the order to appear in court the mother removed the child from school and carried him to Arizona. We have almost one month before our actually court appearance. Does the petition give us any protection?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Child Custody
As long as there was no court order prohibiting the removal of the child from the state by the mother, a pending custody petition is likely to be of little assistance to you in securing custody rights to this child(in my opinion).
However, given the length of time which the child has resided with you in the Commonwealth, under the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act(to which virtually all states are signatories), Virginia continues to have jurisdiction over the issue of custody, and if the matter were raised in the appropriate court in Arizona, such court would very likely rule tha the child must be returned to Virginia for an adjudication of the custody issue.
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