Hague Convention – International Child Custody – Incoming Case Definition

Children can be abducted from, or to, a country. When Child Custody Lawyers are working with the Central Authority of a government, the question becomes whether or not the case is an Incoming or Outgoing case.

For example, if Mother and Father have a child in France, and the French court makes a determination that Father shall have custody in France, but Mother shall have summer visitations in Los Angeles, if Mother keeps the child in Los Angeles beyond the summer break, that is a wrongful withholding and Father would open an Incoming Child Abduction case through the American Central Authority, the Department of State, who has appointed the Los Angeles District Attorney as their local representative and hire local child custody attorneys to represent him.