Cooperation between courts; preservation of records
Va. Code Ann. § 20-146.11
in effectA. A court of this Commonwealth may request the appropriate court of another state to:
1. Hold an evidentiary hearing;
2. Order a person to produce or give evidence pursuant to procedures of that state;
3. Order that an evaluation be made with respect to the custody of a child involved in a pending proceeding;
4. Forward to the court of this Commonwealth a certified copy of the transcript of the record of the hearing, the evidence otherwise presented, and any evaluation prepared in compliance with the request; and
5. Order a party to a child custody proceeding or any person having physical custody of the child to appear in the proceeding with or without the child.
B. Upon request of a court of another state, a court of this Commonwealth may hold a hearing or enter an order described in subsection A.
C. Travel and other necessary and reasonable expenses incurred under subsections A and B may be assessed against the parties according to the law of this Commonwealth.
D. A court of this Commonwealth shall preserve the pleadings, orders, decrees, records of hearings, evaluations, and other pertinent records with respect to a child custody proceeding until the child attains eighteen years of age. Upon appropriate request by a court or law-enforcement official of another state, the court shall forward a certified copy of those records.
1979, c. 229, §§ 20-142, 20-143, 20-144, 20-145; 2001, c. 305 .
Source: Open US Law by Vaquill AI (CC BY 4.0)URL: https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/20-146.11/Fetched: 10/16/2026