Parental Kidnapping

Usually, a court only has power (jurisdiction) to make custody decisions over a child who has lived in that state for the past six months. When a court makes an emergency custody order, the court is using “emergency jurisdiction” to issue the temporary order. Therefore, the order is supposed to last for a short time only until the home state, known as the state with “preferred jurisdiction,” can issue or change a long-term custody order. The judge is required to include the length of time the order will remain in effect in order to allow the parent to see an order from the preferred jurisdiction. If cases regarding the same child have been filed in two different places, the judges are required to communicate with each other to decide which state will keep the long-term custody case.¹

¹ UCCJEA § 204