Legal Question in Family Law in Montana

When the time to respond passes, file an Entry of Default. You will need to draft a Parenting Order for the court to review and sign at the hearing. Send the original of both documents to the Clerk of Court, as you've been doing. Save copies for you and dad. You can send a third copy to be "conformed" with the same stamps that will appear on the original, as the Clerk of Court to return the conformed copy to you.

Call the Judge's court administrator to ask the judge to set the hearing date between your fly-in and fly-out dates. Even better: If you can cash in your tickets, request permission to appear by telephone or video conferencing if you can hook into that. (Even if you can't cash in your tickets, you'll lose less time from work and save on hotel costs.) The court needs to hear your testimony, but it doesn't necessarily have to see you. A few of my clients, stationed in Germany and deployed Iraq have appeared by telephone.

After the hearing, the court will hand the file to the clerk, who will file it and mail a conformed copy to you. By the way, when you file the default and proposed Degree, include a self-addressed envelope for the clerk to return copies to you.