Conflicting Child Custody Orders from Different Courts
Imagine a couple divorced and the Florida divorce court eventually entered an order for custody of the couple’s children. Imagine one of the parents didn’t like the terms of the custody order.
Now imagine that the dissatisfied parent took the children to, say, Wyoming, during summer visitation and got a new custody order in Wyoming. The previously dissatisfied parent liked this Wyoming custody order a lot better than the Florida custody order.
This probably sounds like science fiction. But this sort of thing used to happen all the time throughout this country. Then, over time, most of the states passed one of two versions of a uniform act intended to prevent such conflicting orders from being entered by different states. (Florida now follows the second version.)
Fast forward to today. Now imagine a couple divorces and a Maryland divorce court eventually enters an order for custody of the couple’s children. Imagine one of the parents doesn’t like the terms of the custody order. Imagine both parents and the children move to Pennsylvania after the divorce.
Now imagine that the dissatisfied parent takes the children to, say, Greece, during summer visitation and gets a new custody order in Greece. The previously dissatisfied parent likes this Greek child custody order a lot better than the Maryland child custody order.
This also probably sounds like science fiction. And, yes, there are also international agreements intended to prevent such conflicting orders from being entered by different subscribing nations. Greece is one of the subscribing nations.
Still, according to a report in a Pennsylvania newspaper, a father was just arrested for allegedly absconding with his children to Greece in 2003. According to the report, the father got a conflicting Greek child custody order despite the existence of the prior Maryland custody order.
