questions & answers

Question: My finance is the father of child. As of now the child's mother is no were to be found the child was given to paternal grandparents last year, they currently have legal guardianship in CA. The child has been in our custody for the last 2 weeks in AZ. How do we start the process for legal custody.

Answer: If CA issued a legitimate custody order in the past, and the current legal custodians (in this case, the grandparents) still live in CA, you must respect CA's continued authority over the case. You cannot withhold the child here and try to get an AZ judge to do something different. Only CA can give everyone permission to litigate the custody issue in a different State. If you are interested in further reading, the rules governing interstate custody issues like this are all grouped together under a body of law called "The Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act" ('UCCJEA'). They can be found starting at A.R.S. § 25-1001.