Legal Question in Family Law in Washington

Re: modification to a dissolution case

In theory you don't need a lawyer to do anything for yourself. As a practical matter you may need one. This particular action is a foreign judgment registration. There are no standard (mandatory) forms for it. The filing fee is $220.00. Once it is filed and served the other party has 20 days to object (and then a hearing will determine whether the Washington Court wlll accept the orders). Once they are registered you can seek enforcement or modification just as with any order issued by a Washington Court. The only parts of the decree or other documents that the Washington courts will generally address is enforcement and modification of the parenting and support orders (support is more difficult to modify as a foreign judgment than parenting-if one party is still in OH).

Re: modification to a dissolution case

You need the OH court to "exemplify" the orders and send them to you so you can file them here. A legal messenger service in OH can help you with this, or perhaps you still have family or friends there that can help.

Once the decree, parenting plan and order of child support are registered here, you can use the WA forms for modification.

If there is an issue of past due child support, find and talk with the Family Support Division of your County's Prosecuting Attorney's office.

WA allows attorneys to appear for limited purposes, and it might be a very good use of your funds to have an attorney make sure this is done properly.

Hope this helps - Elizabeth Powell