§ 25-2740.Domestic relations matters; district, county, and separate juvenile courts; jurisdiction; procedure.

Domestic relations matters cover a wide slice of family law: proceedings under the Protection Orders Act and the Conciliation Court Law, dissolution, separation, annulment, custody, and support cases under sections 42-347 to 42-381, child or medical support proceedings under section 43-512.04, paternity and parental support proceedings under sections 43-1401 to 43-1418, and grandparent visitation proceedings under sections 43-1801 to 43-1803. A narrower subset — paternity or custody determinations — covers proceedings to establish a child’s paternity or to determine custody.

Filing works differently here than in an ordinary civil case. A party files the petition or complaint, and every later filing, with the clerk of the district court, and states in the petition whether the case should be heard by a county court judge or a district court judge. Ask for a county judge, and the county judge assigned to hear cases in that county at the time of the hearing is deemed appointed by the district court — no separate consent from that judge is required. Even though a county judge hears it, the case is treated as a district court proceeding, and the resulting order or judgment carries the same force as a district court judgment. Testimony in a domestic relations matter heard before a county judge is preserved the way section 25-2732 requires.

Beyond that filing mechanism, a county court or separate juvenile court that already has jurisdiction over the child whose paternity or custody is at issue has its own, independent jurisdiction to decide that paternity or custody question, without needing the district-court filing route at all.

This structure explains why an appeal from a domestic relations judgment heard by a county judge goes to the Court of Appeals under section 25-2739 rather than through the district court appeal process that governs ordinary county court cases.