West Virginia Code 48-16-401 – PETITION TO ESTABLISH SUPPORT ORDER
(a) If a support order entitled to recognition under this article has not been issued, a responding tribunal of this state with personal jurisdiction over the parties may issue a support order if:
Terms Used In West Virginia Code 48-16-401
- Child: means an individual, whether over or under the age of majority, who is or is alleged to be owed a duty of support by the individual'. See West Virginia Code 48-16-102
- Duty of support: means an obligation imposed or imposable by law to provide support for a child, spouse or former spouse, including an unsatisfied obligation to provide support. See West Virginia Code 48-16-102
- Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
- Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
- Law: includes decisional and statutory law and rules and regulations having the force of law. See West Virginia Code 48-16-102
- Obligor: means an individual or the estate of a decedent that:
(A) Owes or is alleged to owe a duty of support. See West Virginia Code 48-16-102
- Outside this state: means a location in another state or a country other than the United States, whether or not the country is a foreign country. See West Virginia Code 48-16-102
- Responding tribunal: means the authorized tribunal in a responding state or foreign country. See West Virginia Code 48-16-102
- State: means a state of the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands or any territory or insular possession subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. See West Virginia Code 48-16-102
- Support enforcement agency: means a public official or governmental entity, or private agency authorized to:
(A) Seek enforcement of support orders or laws relating to the duty of support. See West Virginia Code 48-16-102
- Support order: means a judgment, decree, order, decision or directive, whether temporary, final or subject to modification, issued in a state or foreign country for the benefit of a child, a spouse or a former spouse which provides for monetary support, health care, arrearages, retroactive support or reimbursement for financial assistance provided to an individual obligee in place of child support. See West Virginia Code 48-16-102
- Tribunal: means a court, administrative agency or quasi-judicial entity authorized to establish, enforce or modify support orders or to determine parentage of a child. See West Virginia Code 48-16-102
(1) The individual seeking the order resides outside this state; or
(2) The support enforcement agency seeking the order is located outside this state.
(b) The tribunal may issue a temporary child support order if the tribunal determines that such an order is appropriate and the individual ordered to pay is:
(1) A presumed father of the child;
(2) Petitioning to have his paternity adjudicated;
(3) Identified as the father of the child through genetic testing;
(4) An alleged father who has declined to submit to genetic testing;
(5) Shown by clear and convincing evidence to be the father of the child;
(6) An acknowledged father as provided by applicable state law;
(7) The mother of the child; or
(8) An individual who has been ordered to pay child support in a previous proceeding and the order has not been reversed or vacated.
(c) Upon finding, after notice and opportunity to be heard, that an obligor owes a duty of support, the tribunal shall issue a support order directed to the obligor and may issue other orders pursuant to section 16-305 [§48-16-305].