A Columbus Ohio Family Law Attorney article on Moving or Relocation.

This article is the fifth in a series about moving and how it relates to Ohio child custody, shared parenting and visitation.  To read the first four articles in this series, see

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

Sometimes, parents want to move because they think that in a different location, with a different judge, they will get a different decision with regard to their children.  This happened so often, and for so many years, that most states have adopted the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act, or UCCJEA, as law.  In Ohio, it is adopted as Ohio Revised Code Chapter 3127.  Essentially, the UCCJEA says that once a state that rightfully had jurisdiction under the UCCJEA makes a custody order, that state retains jurisdiction until all of the parties (mother, father and child, or who ever had rights pursuant to the child custody order) has left the State which issued the order.

While the issuing state has the option to decline to exercise its right to maintain jurisdiction, to do so defies the provisions that the UCCJEA specifically requires.  It does not happen very often, and for good reason.  The UCCJEA is a treatise that is adopted in most states as law, in order that state law can comply with the federal law on the subject, which is the Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act, or PKPA.  To learn more about the UCCJEA and the PKPA, see these articles or consult with a Columbus Ohio Family Law Attorney:

https://cornwell-law.com/06/interstate-family-law-jurisdiction-attorney-series-part-i/

https://cornwell-law.com/10/10-things-you-need-to-know-about-interstate-custody-jurisdiction/

Ohio Revised Code Chapter 3127 allows a person who moves to Ohio to register a decree from another state for purposes of enforcement.  That is a very different thing that granting an Ohio court jurisdiction to MODIFY the order.

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