Residence after the fact

North Carolina Divorce Law Divorce and Separation Answers
1

I have not lived in NC since 2002. During my time in NC I was assigned on active duty military orders, never paid taxes to NC, and subsequently established residence in Colorado. My divorce was granted in Colorado but my ex wouldn’t consent to CO jurisdiction, and proceeded to obstruct the process throughout. Eventually the judge ruled she had delayed enough, and awarded Child Support and a divorce.

She has now failed to enroll my children in school last year, so I took her to court again. That was OCT, and now the kids are in school. But her lawyer says that by way of petitioning the court to force her to enroll the kids in school and rule on custody/visitation, I have opened myself to NC jurisdiction.

The judge appears to agree and has ruled I must present records from CO showing who was obstructive, etc within 30 days. I’m still working on getting a copy of the order from my attorney in FAY NC.

Does this sound like an accurate depiction of NC law re: jurisdiction? How does the judge feel like she has personal jurisdiction over me? What about subject matter jurisdiction? I haven’t lived there in 12+ years and was only ever there on military orders. Am I missing something? And does your law firm work in Fayetteville, because I am not very satisfied with my legal representation?

Thank you.

2

Jurisdiction, especially with child custody issues can be fairly tricky. If your have a NC court order on child custody, then NC will have jurisdiction over the order and parties until the children no longer live in North Carolina. To learn about how jurisdiction and child custody issues, you can read the following article: which state has jurisdiction in custody cases.

As far as personal jurisdiction goes, you essentially consented to jurisdiction being proper by filing your complaint in NC. Although, CO wouldn’t be able to exercise jurisdiction over the order either (pursuant to the UCCJEA rules listed above).

Unfortunately we do not practice in Fayetteville, but if you call our office we’d be happy to provide a referral.