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Lawyers Manual - Unified Court System

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UCCJEA and Domestic Violence: A Case Study 127<br />

violence or the child or sibling from mistreatment or abuse.” 30 Here, Ms. P.<br />

could explain her conduct under this provision.<br />

Conclusion<br />

This brief overview is only that. The UCCJEA is a complicated statutory<br />

scheme, replete with cross-references and multi-layered analyses that demand<br />

careful study. A practitioner would do best to spend some time becoming familiar<br />

with the overall structure of the Act, which is divided into three areas: Title I,<br />

“General Provisions”; Title II, “Jurisdiction”; and Title III, “Enforcement.”<br />

Because of the extensive interplay of the various provisions, it would be a<br />

mistake to go forward with a UCCJEA application based only upon a partial<br />

reading of the statutory scheme. While a particular provision may seem exactly<br />

on point, and even dispositive, it will no doubt be subject to modification by<br />

some other provision, such as “inconvenient forum” analysis. Thus any claim<br />

must be assessed in light of the statutory scheme in its entirety.<br />

Preservation of continuing and exclusive home state jurisdiction remains an<br />

important purpose of the UCCJEA. Where there is no compelling reason to<br />

upend that jurisdiction, and a parent still remains in the original jurisdiction, a<br />

foreign court faced with a request for modification will most probably reject the<br />

application, and a client’s chance of success is low. 31 If, however, both parents<br />

and the child have left the original jurisdiction, a new jurisdiction will be much<br />

more inclined to assert modification jurisdiction. 32<br />

Another overriding goal of the UCCJEA is to prevent forum-shopping.<br />

Forum-shopping is not the same, however, as an effort to find relief in a<br />

jurisdiction that will be sensitive to the safety needs of a parent and child fleeing<br />

a batterer. Both Hector G. and Noel D. show how general jurisdictional<br />

priorities can be set aside when domestic violence is a factor in the parent’s<br />

relocation to the new jurisdiction, even when that relocation is in violation of an<br />

existing court order. If there is something about the original jurisdiction that<br />

makes it a particularly unsafe venue for a client, that should be described in<br />

detail to the new court. Whether the concern is community or judicial<br />

indifference to domestic violence, an inability to protect from threatened harm,<br />

particular support or resources available only in the new jurisdiction, these<br />

factors should all be placed before the court in support of a request for<br />

temporary emergency jurisdiction. 33 Domestic violence advocates in the<br />

alternate jurisdiction, if there are any, can be contacted for insight into how

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