Who has Jurisdiction of custody....

[buckeyemom]

If the state of Ohio granted custody to a birthparent who lives in West Virginia, after the child spent 2 years in foster care, and has since divorced and abandoned this child to a stepparent, which state now has jurisdiction over the custody of this child?? The former foster parents want to file for custody of this child as they have maintained a very close relationship with the child even though the stepparent wants custody also. The birthparent has a long violent criminal history, which the CPS agency in Ohio neglected to check into before sending this child out of state, and apparently had a psychological evaluation done and was found to function as a 9 year old child himself. I know that normally a birthparent can choose who their child lives with however under these circumstances it would appear that this particular birthparent does not have the mental capacity to make such a serious decision that would affect this child for the rest of her life and the court should do that for him. The question is, which state has jurisdiction? Ohio, the court that ordered the original custody order to the birthparent or West Virginia, the court that is the "home state" to this child since she has lived there for the past 2 years?? PLEASE HELP!!

 

[nookey]

from my understanding of the laws it should be the home state of the child. my boyfriend and i are working on custody issues related to 2 different states and we have to go through the state which she has resided for at least the last 6 months. for better information, considering that another state decided custody you may want to look up the 'uniform child custody jurisdiction and enforcement act' this is the national regulation as to which state has jurisdiction over custody cases. it's a bit long, but has some good information.
good luck,
nookey