UCCJEA Child Custody Jurisdiction - Legal & Tactical Considerations

With so many families having changing custody arrangements due to the increasing mobility of our society and additionally due to the COVID-19 crisis, the courts are facing an onrush of UCCJEA litigation. What happens when a parent left out of state before the pandemic and then never returned? Who has custody jurisdiction?

These questions and many more will be addressed by our panel led by Judge Hank Goldberg (Ret.). This is a program for both seasoned practitioners seeking a refresher on this complicated area of law, and also a starting point for new attorneys on how to approach a jurisdictional issue. It will address the legal basis for temporary emergency jurisdiction, initial jurisdiction, continuing jurisdiction and modification jurisdiction under UCCJEA, using a hypothetical to demonstrate the often-labyrinthine analysis, and raise tactical considerations. Judge Goldberg will explain the nuts and bolts of how California judges meet the requirement to communicate with judges of another state when a custody proceeding is pending in another state. The objective of the program is to have a framework to deal with UCCJEA issues and a toolkit for tactical considerations.