American Samoa § 42.0422 - Duties of district court and territorial officials when acting as responding state.

§ 42.0422. Duties of district court and territorial officials when acting as responding state.

(a) After the district court, acting as a responding state, has received from the court of an initiating state copies of a complaint, the certificate of the court of the initiating state, and the initiating state’s reciprocal support law, the clerk of the district court shall docket the case and notify the Attorney General of his action. (b) It shall be the duty of the Attorney General or his assistant diligently to prosecute the case. He shall take all action necessary in accordance with the laws of this territory to give the district court jurisdiction of the defendant or his property and shall request the district court to set a time and place for a hearing. (c) The Attorney General or his assistant shall, on his own initiative, use all means at his disposal to trace the defendant or his property, and if delay is caused by inaccuracies of the complaint or otherwise, the Attorney General or his assistant shall inform the district court to continue the case pending receipt of more accurate information or an amended complaint from the court in the initiating state. (d) If the defendant or his property is not found in the territory and the Attorney General or his assistant discovers by any means that the defendant or his property may be found in a state, he shall so inform the district court and thereupon the clerk of the district court shall forward the documents received from the court in the initiating state to a court in the other state or to the information agency or other proper official of the other state with a request that it forward the documents to the proper court. When the clerk of a court of this territory retransmits documents to another court, he shall notify forthwith the court from which the documents came. (e) If the Attorney General or his assistant has no information as to the whereabouts of the obligor or his property he shall so inform the initiating court. Amendments: 1979 Substituted references to district court for references to High Court.