Legal Question in Family Law in Washington

Re: can I modify my parenting plan without the help of an atorney?

What you posted here is too much for me to answer in the 3000 characters or less of space that LawGuru allows me, so this will be brief and lacking in details.

Yes, you can do a Parenting Plan (PP) modification without an attorney, and the forms are available online at www.courts.wa.gov in both Word and PDF formats. To answer your other question regarding your ex divorcing and you being happily married, it might make a difference, but that depends. Is your ex's divorce going smooth? Do your child and new wife get along? Are there half-siblings in either household? A lot more information is needed to be able to answer that adequately.

Look, I know that you want to save money on legal fees to spend on your child- everyone wants the same thing. At the end of the day, you have to ask yourself, what are you trading for when you hire an attorney? If you get a good one, I'd say you're buying an insurance policy that things are being done right, (although that is by no means a guarantee that you'll win, but at least you won't be sent out of a courtroom being told that you filed the wrong papers or that you filed them incorrectly, or when a trial comes, that you did not get your evidence in because you are not familiar with the rules of evidence).

If I were a surgeon and your daughter needed minor surgery, I could guide you through it over the phone and you could read medical books at Border's Books and learn all you need to, and you might do all right. However, more likely than not, you will encounter at least a minor problem, and where a surgeon could deal with it, you might wind up with a dead patient. Of course, you'll still have all the money you saved in your pocket to spend on the funeral (which might be more expensive than surgery!).

My point is, I often encounter people who tried to handle a relatively simple case (and PP modifications are not simple) and it turns into a nightmare. By the time it gets to me, what was a $3,000 problem just became a $10,000 problem and maybe no chance of getting the kids back.

If after reading this, you want to proceed, then I hope this at least steers you to the forms, and I wish you luck. If you want to consult with a lawyer, I see that you are in Spokane, so I recommend Lisa Larrick, whose e-mail is [email protected]

At least pay for an hour consultation and get a good idea of where things stand and what you are up against. It might save a bundle more down the road.