156 DIVorCe wItH DeCenCY
Interstate Custody
One father is more than a hundred schoolmasters.
—George Herbert
The Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act
and the Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act are the governing
statutes for custody disputes when parents live in two different
states. They basically say that the initial custody determination
should be made in the child’s “home state,” which is defined as
being wherever the child has most recently resided with a parent
for a continuous period of six months. This, in turn, triggers some
major strategic moves and “who files when and where” choices.
The state where the initial custody determination has been made
retains continuing exclusive jurisdiction to modify custody (and
visitation) so long as one parent continues to reside there. If nei-
ther parent continues to reside there, the proper forum is usually
the child’s new “home state.”
Child Support
Money isn’t everything—but it sure keeps you in touch with your children.
—Anonymous
Three decades ago, when I first started handling divorce cases,
child support used to be a negotiated item, just like any other
aspect of the property settlement. The parties would agree on
whatever child-support figure they wanted, and that would be
how much would be paid. If they couldn’t reach an agreement,
the court would order its own amount. Other than that, however,
the court would generally approve whatever figure the parties
themselves agreed upon.
Meet the mandatory child-support guidelines. Things have changed.
Now, in almost every state, the family court simply sets the appro-
priate amount of child support owed based upon a complicated
and mandatory formula called the child-support guidelines, which
focus upon the monthly earnings of each parent (usually the gross
earnings per month) and upon the needs of the child. The parties
are no longer free to decide levels of child support on their own.