How to enforce an Oregon custody order in Washington state?

You need to confer with an attorney in Washington. An initial consultation will help you. These are complicated issues and you will need the help of an attorney. Even if you can't afford to retain an attorney you should try to find one you can consult with on an hourly basis.

If Washington's process is similar to Oregon's (consult with a Washington attorney to find out) you would register the judgment there so it could be enforced there, but Oregon retains jurisdiction under the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Enforcement Act - UCCJEA (google it to learn more) until it relinquishes jurisdiction which is unlikely if you and the child live here. Once it is registered there you can ask Washington to enforce the judgment as it if it was Washington's own order. You may need a writ of assistance, which is an order of the court directing law enforcement to go into her home, remove the child and bring the child back to you. It usually begging for trouble to attempt to retrieve the child yourself. Washington my have a different name for a writ of assistance but there is most likely a comparable mechanism for getting children back where they should be when someone is violating a judgment. You will need to consult with a Washington attorney for details, but a good start is to peruse the forms available on the website for the court that is close to where your child is now.

Call the police in Washington and ask if they will accompany you to mom's house to pick up your children if you have a certified copy of the Oregon Judgment awarding you custody. They may or may not be willing to help you in this informal fashion. But it's worth a try. Often what the police will want is a formal order from a Judge in their jurisdiction called a writ of assistance. You probably only need to pay for one consultation with a Washington Attorney who can explain to you what the rules and procedures are for getting a writ of assistance. It probably involves getting a certified copy of your Oregon Judgment and filing with with the Washington Court and then going to see the Judge with a pre-drafted write of assistance and asking the Judge to sign this so you can then ask the police to help you pickup your child. I want to make it abundantly clear that what I am saying above is just an educated guess based on what happens in Oregon. I can't tell you for certain if this is what you need to do in Washington. I just want to help you understand that there is usually a process like the one I have mentioned and you just need to go one time to a Washington Attorney to figure out what you need to do. I also want to mention that if you got custody by default, the mother may come back to court in Oregon and move to reopen the case. So things could change. But for the moment, if you have custody, you can operate accordingly.