With our rapidly changing economy, it seems unlikely that the circumstances surrounding a child’s life would not change after the entry of a parenting plan. Seattle parenting plan modifications are actions to legally modify one or more terms of a parenting plan. Keep in mind, only a court with proper jurisdiction can enact Seattle parenting plan modifications. In Seattle, that court is the King County Superior Court located in downtown Seattle.

What if your parenting plan was entered in Seattle, but you now live outside the jurisdiction of King County Superior Court? Attorneys who handle Seattle parenting plan modifications must be familiar with an intricate and very important set of legal rules known as jurisdiction. In general, jurisdiction refers to the power a court has over the subject matter of a lawsuit and the parties involved in the suit. “Subject matter” jurisdiction for Seattle parenting plan modifications lies in the Superior Court, not district or municipal court. “Personal jurisdiction” refers to court’s ability to bind the parties with its decision and is accomplished by following a specific set of rules too complex to detail here. In general, Washington has jurisdiction over a suit involving child custody if Washington is the home state of the child. Parties bringing Seattle parenting plan modifications must comply with these jurisdictional rules or the court simply will not hear the case.

The purpose behind the special jurisdictional rules that Seattle parenting plan modifications are subject to is to prevent “forum shopping”—when a person who doesn’t like a ruling in one jurisdiction simply moves to another—parental kidnapping, and to prevent confusion among the courts. As noted above, changes in today’s families are inevitable, and without rules to guide what is best for children, litigating suits such as Seattle parenting plan modifications could become chaotic.

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