Legal Question in Family Law in Washington
Parenting Plan
My boyfriend hasn't seen his daughter in 3 years so he went to court to set up visiting and he feels they treated him unfair they made it so he had to have supervised visits at his expense and also he had to pay for a parenting investigater before he could even see her my question is how long or how does he go about setting a new court date with a new judge and also will the ruling end up being the same because of the previous judge. He feels the judge treated him unfair also because she is his child support judge.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Parenting Plan
Getting a new judge is difficult if your boyfriend has had a motion heard, he would have to prove actual prejudice, not just that he did not agree with the judge or felt he/she treated him unfairly. Sometimes a judge will recuse themselves if asked, but they are not required to. Setting a court date is done by filing a motion or petition depending on what he wants to do (depends on the procedural development of the case of which I know nearly nothing). What your boyfriend wants to do is not "do it yourself law;" he should seriously consider retaining an attorney. I'd be curious about which Pierce County Superior Court judge is assigned to the case, I have experience with several of them, and have my own thoughts on them.