What does UCCJA stand for?

Through the enactment of the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act (adopted in 1968), the Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act (adopted in 1997), and the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (adopted by Florida October 1, 2002), the jurisdictional rules have been refined and made more consistent, while the basic concepts guiding whether a court should exercise jurisdiction over a case have been preserved.

Congress addressed this with the passage of the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act (UCCJA), (2) which made the practice of moving to another state for the purpose of changing custody illegal.

Several issues bear on the jurisdictional analysis: 1) whether States must obtain personal jurisdiction over non-resident birth parents in adoption cases or whether notice and an opportunity to be heard suffices; 2) whether a State has subject matter jurisdiction over the adoption of the child and the relevance of the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act (UCCJA) (39) in competing state court determinations of paternal rights; 3) whether compliance with a putative father registry notice scheme abrogates whatever need for personal jurisdiction exists and/or satisfies constitutional requirements; and 4) the relevance and applicability of long arm statutes on such jurisdiction.

Likewise, Florida and all other states in the United States have accepted the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act (hereinafter &uot;UCCJA&uot;).