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Nebraska Allegedly Passes Statute So It Can Ignore Canadian Custody Orders ? Nebraska Residents Don?t Like

By Janet Langjahr

One might not think of a legal dispute over jurisdiction with our neighbor to the north as being an international jurisdiction battle.

But …

Canadian Husband and American Wife live in British Columbia.

Couple divorce.

Husband is awarded sole custody of Daughter by Canadian court.

Wife moves to Nebraska.

Husband and Wife work out timesharing and Wife has Daughter over much of the summer.

Then Wife accuses Husband of abusing Daughter.

Husband denies it, backed by a lie detector test and lack of criminal charges.

Wife retains Daughter and Husband doesn’t see her for two years.

Wife hasn’t been able to transfer jurisdiction from Canada to Nebraska, but neither has Nebraska honored the Canadian custody order and ordered that Daughter be returned to Husband.

Wife does succeed in getting Nebraska to pass legislation to the effect that Nebraska need not honor custody orders from outside the US.

One must speculate that the constitutionality of that statute will be tested soon.

Nebraska may have rejected the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.

Husband is pursuing political intervention by the Canadian government.

Some Canadians are concerned that it isn’t safe to allow visitation in the US anymore.

Read more in this [British Columbia, Canada] Richmond Review article: Richmond educator fights for daughter.

Full post as published by Florida Divorce - Child Custody - Domestic Abuse Law on May 30, 2009 (boomark / email).