My divorce was finalized during 1998 in Orange County, CA. My former
spouse and children have not lived in the State of California since
1999. My former spouse is now domiciled in Virginia and has
re-married. We have joint legal custody, but she has physical custody
(80/20). My son is 11 and my daughter is almost 14. The issue .......
my former spouse registered the order in Virginia in an attempt to
modify support this past summer (2005). The State of Virginia referred
the matter to Riverside County Department of Child Support (the County
where I reside) who is now going to review the case for midification
of Support. I have done the math, and I will pay almost $1000 more per
month here in CA then I would in VA. This seems ridiculous to me since
the children reside in VA where the cost of living is much cheaper. I
realize that I must petition to have the jurisdiction changed to VA,
but how do I do this? Does this originate in the CA courts or in VA?
Have there been successful attempts at this in the past?

Thanks in advance for the help.

---

Clarification of Question by robhil88-ga on 03 Jan 2006 12:01 PST

I have an appointment with an OC Attorney tomorrow (Wed, 1/4); they
seem to agree that it should be transferred to VA; I disagree with the
last comment (although thanks for responding). Child Support should be
based on where the children live; in this case, they receive less in
VA due to the lower cost of living. This is fair; looking at the
reverse, if the children lived in CA and I worked in VA, would it be
fair for the mother to receive the lessor amount then? Would this then
be in the best interests of the children?

The state of califorina has family law facilitators to help with this
very question.  tho i couldn't find an answer for your specific
question online, a quick phone call might help.  check out
http://www.occourts.org/family/flfacil.asp

You probably won't succeed in trying to change the jurisdictional
venue. Why? Because the state that issued the court order is the one
that has personal jurisdiction over "the payor" and is therefore the
one that takes precedence. Where "the payee" is located is most often
irrelevant.

tutuzdad-ga

I should have added that it isn't how much more your wife could
hypothetically do with the same amount of money in one economy vs.
another, rather what the California court determines you can (and
should) reasonably part with according to your income vs. the current
California economy.

tutuzdad-ga