Frisco Divorce Lawyer

Uniform Interstate Family Support Act

When people decide to get a divorce, they have many big decisions to make, such as who gets the house, whether or not there is alimony, and how the divorce itself should be handled. However, parents with children have the added responsibility of setting up visitation, custody, and child support.

Nonetheless, sometimes parents have to change these plans, or even force the other parent to fulfill his or her part of the child support payments. Thus, all states have adopted the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act, or UIFSA, to help parents that live in different states to address these problems.

UIFSA was drafted at the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws in 1992. After two revisions in 1996, the national congress passed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act that required that all states who wanted federal funding for child support enforcement pass UIFSA by January 1, 1998. Although it was again revised in 2001, all states have adopted this act.

Before UIFSA, divorced parents who lived in different states faced difficulties when determining what courts had jurisdiction over child support enforcement and other custody-related issues. Normally, the original court that ruled on the child support has control, but if a child moves, the courts of his or her home state can have power over the child support orders.

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Even though UIFSA is supposed to make interstate child support rulings more convenient, it can still be difficult to modify child support decisions and ask for payment. If you or someone you know needs assistance with altering original child support rulings, you should contact a Frisco family lawyer at the Frisco law firm of Alexanader & Associates by calling 972-420-6570 today.