4.10.11 Mandatory Inter-Court Communications

Communications with another state’s court are mandatory only when (1) there are simultaneous custody proceedings; (2) a Louisiana court exercising temporary emergency jurisdiction under La. R.S. 13:1816 learns that a proceeding exists in another state; or (3) a Louisiana court with non-emergency UCCJEA jurisdiction learns that another state has assumed temporary emergency jurisdiction. A Louisiana court may communicate with another state on other jurisdictional matters, but it is not required to do so. As a practical matter, without communicating with the other court, it would be difficult for a court to evaluate the seventh and eighth factors of the analysis required by La. R.S. 13:1819 for evaluating a motion to decline jurisdiction on inconvenient forum grounds.