Legal Question in Family Law in Washington

I'm not sure if my question should be listed in WA or AZ, so I'll try WA first. My boyfriend, R, has two children with his ex wife. R and I live in WA, where their divorce and child support info is filed. His ex, H, lives in AZ with the kids, aged 13 and 16. She has sole custody. H recently sent the younger child here with no explanation and only 3 hours notice, and is demanding we pay to sent her back in a weeks' time. The child wants to stay here with her father, and has made claims of verbal, mental, and "minor" physical abuse from her mom and her boyfriend. R called CPS here in WA but was told he had to call AZ CPS, when he called AZ CPS he was told he had to deal with WA. We can't afford a huge court battle, but I think the needs and desires of the child should come first. What can we do?


Asked on 10/20/09, 4:26 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Amir John Showrai The Pacific Law Firm, PLLC

Unfortunately, a huge court battle is probably what you'll need to go through to take care of this situation. Arguably, Washington has at least emergency jurisdiction to issue a temporary restraining order preventing the youngest child's return to Arizona, however, I am guessing that if you fight for one, you will fight for both kids.

Since neither CPS from Washington or Arizona seems to know who has jurisdiction to deal with this, I would start with the court and getting an emergency order. The question after that is whether this ought to be dealt with in Arizona courts or Washington courts, and without more information, at this time, I would say you are probably going to have to fight this in Arizona, given that the kids have lived there so long, and the 16 year old is still there, as well as the fact that the 13 year old's presence in Washington has only been temporary.

You may be able to handle the whole thing in Arizona, with an Arizona lawyer, but for at least a small portion of it, you may need local Washington counsel to help get a temporary order keeping the 13 year old here legally pending further order of an Arizona court. If I were you, I would start with an Arizona attorney and go from there.

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Answered on 10/26/09, 4:13 pm


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