A. The general purposes of this act are to:

Terms Used In Virginia Code 20-146.38

  • Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
  • Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
  • Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
  • State: when applied to a part of the United States, includes any of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the United States Virgin Islands. See Virginia Code 1-245

1. Avoid jurisdictional competition and conflict with courts of other states in matters of child custody that have in the past resulted in the shifting of children from state to state with harmful effects on their well-being;

2. Promote cooperation with the courts of other states to the end that a custody decree is rendered in that state that can best decide the case in the interest of the child;

3. Ensure that litigation concerning the custody of a child take place ordinarily in the state with which the child and his family have the closest connection and where significant evidence concerning his care, protection, training, and personal relationships is most readily available, and that courts of this state decline the exercise of jurisdiction when the child and his family have a closer connection with another state;

4. Discourage continuing controversies over child custody in the interest of greater stability of home environment and of secure family relationships for the child;

5. Deter abductions and other unilateral removals of children undertaken to obtain custody awards;

6. Avoid relitigation of custody decisions of other states in this Commonwealth insofar as feasible;

7. Facilitate the enforcement of custody decrees of other states;

8. Promote and expand the exchange of information and other forms of mutual assistance between the courts of this Commonwealth and those of other states concerned with the same child; and

9. Make uniform the law of those states that enact it.

B. This act shall be construed to promote the general purposes stated in this section.

2001, c. 305.

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