§ 19-11-61.Procedure when responding court unable to obtain jurisdiction; cooperation of police in locating respondent; transfer of documents upon location of respondent or his property

Petitions sent across state lines often carry stale addresses. This section tells a Georgia court acting as the responding state what to do when it can’t obtain jurisdiction of the respondent or the respondent’s property, whether because the petition is inaccurate or inadequate or for any other reason. The court must do three things: tell the court in the initiating state; on its own initiative, use all means at its disposal to trace the respondent or the property; and hold the case until it receives more accurate information or an amended petition from the initiating court, or word from the district attorney that the matter should be transferred. Local police and the state police must cooperate with the court in locating any respondent the petition alleges is present in Georgia.

Subsection (b) handles a respondent who has moved on. If the respondent or the property isn’t found in the county, and the district attorney discovers that the respondent or the property may be found in another Georgia county or in another state, the district attorney must tell the court. The clerk then forwards the documents received from the initiating court to the superior court in that Georgia county, or to the appropriate court, information agency or other proper officials of the other state. The clerk must notify the court that sent the documents that they’ve been forwarded. The section was amended in 1984.

Article 2 has been closed to new petitions since January 1, 1998 (§ 19-11-40.1). Article 3, the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act, spreads these tasks among other provisions: § 19-11-125 has a tribunal that receives a pleading in error forward it to an appropriate tribunal and notify the petitioner, and § 19-11-129 has the Department of Human Services gather information on where an obligor and the obligor’s property are located.