2008 Amendments to the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act ...

Comment
Subsection (a) was designed primarily to facilitate interstate enforcement between UIFSA
states and URESA and RURESA states, with some applicability to cases involving foreign
jurisdictions. Since 1998, by which time UIFSA had been enacted nationwide, the procedure
described has gradually become an anachronism. Note, however, that the last RURESA childsupport
order may not expire until 2017 or 2018. See Prefatory Note.
Subsection (b), however, retains its utility with regard to a support order of a foreign
nation. Supplying documentation required by a foreign jurisdiction, which is not otherwise
required by UIFSA procedure, is appropriate in the international context. For example, a
venerable process in British Commonwealth countries is known as provisional and confirming
orders. A “provisional order” is a statement of the nonbinding amount of support being requested
by a Canadian tribunal for establishment of a support order by a state responding tribunal. A
state responding tribunal will receive information about the amount of support provisionally
calculated by a tribunal in Canada. It needs to be borne in mind that a request to establish support
from a Canadian tribunal will be accomplished in accordance with the law of the responding
state. Thus, the Canadian provisional order is informative, but not binding on the responding
tribunal. An order issued by the responding tribunal, whether for the amount suggested in the
provisional order or another amount based on the local law of the responding tribunal, is known
as a confirming order. Similarly, the state support enforcement agency, knowing that a
provisional order will be required by the Canadian tribunal, is directed to cooperate and provide
a statement of the amount of support being provisionally requested.
The initiating tribunal of this state also has a duty to identify the amount of foreign
currency equivalent to its request to the Canadian tribunal and a corresponding duty for a
responding tribunal to convert the foreign currency into dollars if the foreign initiating tribunal
has not done so, Section 305(f). The reference to “the applicable official or market exchange
rate” takes into account the present practices of international money markets. A few countries
continue to maintain an official exchange rate for their currency. The vast majority of countries
recognize the fact that the value of their currency is subject to daily market fluctuations that are
reported on the financial pages of many daily newspapers. Thus, in the example described above,
a request for a specific amount of support in U.S. dollars, which is to be translated into Canadian
dollars on a specific date, will inevitably have a variable value as the foreign currency rises or
falls against the U.S. dollar.
Related to Convention: art. 31. Decisions produced by the combined effect of provisional
and confirmation orders.
SECTION 305. DUTIES AND POWERS OF RESPONDING TRIBUNAL.
(a) When a responding tribunal of this State state receives a [petition] or comparable
pleading from an initiating tribunal or directly pursuant to Section 301(b), it shall cause the
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