Also known as: Family Support Acts · FSA
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A uniform state statute governing interstate establishment, enforcement, and modification of child-support orders, including rules for determining the controlling order and the duration of the obligation.
Felicia Fuentes obtained a child support order in State A. After the obligor moved, she asked the State A tribunal to act as an initiating tribunal under the interstate rules. The tribunal agreed because the order remained controlling and unmodified by any other state that had assumed jurisdiction. State B therefore enforced the original order and the accrued arrears judgment.
Frederick Ferguson received a New York support order requiring payments until age twenty-one. After moving to North Carolina he asked the registering court to end support at age eighteen. The court refused because New York law continued to govern the duration of the obligation even after registration for enforcement.
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Freya Freeman filed a parentage and support action in State A against a nonresident father. The court exercised personal jurisdiction because the father satisfied the conditions listed in the state's version of the interstate support act. The adjudication bound the father on the parentage issue.
The issuing state's law governs the nature, extent, and duration of the support obligation, including the age of emancipation. The registering state applies its own procedures but does not rewrite the underlying obligation.
A tribunal may serve as an initiating tribunal when its order is the controlling order and has not been modified by another state that assumed jurisdiction under the Act, or when it seeks enforcement of a money judgment for arrears that accrued before any controlling-order determination.
No. Registration permits enforcement using the registering state's procedures, but the issuing state's law continues to control substantive terms such as the age at which support ends.