My wife and I separated in April and resided in SC until April 12th when she moved to NC. Both of us have resided in SC for over 20 years and neither have resided in NC until April. My wife made a separation agreement that we signed and notarized in April. In May she told me it was void and refused to abide by it. My daughter has been residing with me since August 8th. I have an exparte order in SC granting me custody until court on the 14th. Friday I got served with paperwork that summons me to NC on the 17th for court for not abiding by the agreement by not returning my daughter in August. I spoke to her attorney on Friday and he told me it was a different state and did not matter that I have an order from SC. Is this true? SC time stamped the paperwork for the order 30 minutes prior to NC time stamping the order to appear. Does this give SC jurisdiction and what should I do?
No. SC has jurisdiction over custody as your daughter lives there with you. You need to file an action to dismiss the NC action for lack of jurisdiction.
Is there a way to get the case dismissed on jurisdiction prior to the court date? It takes me 5.5-6 hours to drive there?
You may hire an NC attorney to file the motion to dismiss and appear on your behalf.
If they are appearing on my behalf, does that mean I don’t have to appear?
No, the attorney can appear on your behalf in what is called a special appearance to move to dismiss based on lack of jurisdiction.