Legal Question in Family Law in Washington

No. It means that if you cannot agree between yourselves informally or cannot agree between yourselves to do mediation or any other process the two of you can agree on, then there is no requirement that anything but court action must be done.

In other words, if you go to court, the other side cannot complain that you failed to do something else first.

However, if the two of you can solve the problem without going to court--or even mediation--so much the better. As one local judge used to say, "The best parenting plan is one that you put in the drawer and never look at."