Q: Is there any laws for default jurisdiction?
My family lived in Florida for 1.8 years. We went to Mississippi to help wife’s family for 5 months and retained our residence in Florida. things got bad and I brought our children back home to Florida. We both filed for divorce in each state.
I dismissed her because we weren’t in Mississippi 6 months. She in turn dismissed mine because I was gone for 5 months prior.
My jurisdiction is now deemed to be no where.
How is this possible?
If I wasn’t in another state for 6 months to recieve jurisdiction there, and also lose jurisdiction in my resident state because I was gone?
Shouldn’t jurisdiction default back to the last state you were a resident? How is this not an interstate law?
How can I, as an American citizen not have jurisdiction in any state?
A: Every state has a jurisdiction requirement for filing lawsuits. In Florida (and many other states), in order to file for divorce one party has to have lived in the state for at least six months. Wherever you decide to file, you must meet the jurisdiction requirements. Speak with a local family lawyer for more specific advice.
A: You indicated that each of you "dismissed" the other spouse. A party to a case cannot dismiss a case filed by another party. Do you mean that the respective courts dismissed both cases? If so, when a motion to dismiss was filed, you should have responded that you "retained [y]our residence in Florida" (assuming, by "residence", that you mean being a resident, not just ownership of the home).
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