Mike, a member from Tennessee, saw his children taken away by the mother to the Pittsburgh area where the mother's parents live. Once in Pennsylvania, the mother filed for custody and filed a PFA under false pretenses to shortcut the custody procedure process in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.
Mike called some local Pittsburgh NCFC members and asked for ideas and a local attorney. Eli Zlokas represented Mike in Allegheny County Family Division court. Simultaneously, Mike filed for custody in Tennessee with a local attorney there. In a correct yet surprising decision, Allegheny County Family Division ruled in the father's favor that this case's jurisdiction belonged in Tennessee.
In Tennessee, the family court again ruled in the father's favor and granted joint custody with a 50/50 time split and ordered the mother to pay for all travel expenses to and from for the children and granted dad a full 30 day custody time period with the children as a result of the mother's inappropriate actions of removing the children from the state of Tennessee.
The mother has since appealed the jurisdictional decision but has also not showed up for her scheduled 'visitation' times with the children in Tennessee. Mike has been very thankful for the support and information that NCFC has provided for him.