FAMILY LAW
Jacob Keohane
In Roman v. Karren, the supreme court held that Alaska was the appropriate forum for deciding a child custody case, even though none of the parties lived in Alaska at the time. Roman and Karren are the mother and father, respectively, of a girl born in 2012 in Washington, D.C. They moved to Anchorage in April, 2013. The two filed for dissolution (subsequently converted to divorce) in Anchorage in May, 2015. By July, both had moved out of Alaska: Karren to the District of Columbia, and Roman to Washington State. Their daughter lived with Roman. Initially, Roman claimed Alaskan residency and the case proceeded in Alaska, with the parties participating remotely. In 2018, she motioned for the court to transfer jurisdiction to Washington State, on grounds of inconvenient forum. The superior court denied the motion, observing that a trial was scheduled for the following month. On appeal, the supreme court affirmed, holding that the superior court’s decision was not clearly unreasonable. The court noted that, although it was beyond dispute that neither of the parties were current Alaska residents, moving the trial to Washington State would significantly delay proceedings and risk exposing both parties to extensive attorney’s fees. Accordingly, the supreme court held that Alaska was the appropriate forum for deciding the case.