Legal Question in Family Law in Washington
As of right now, my ex wife and I have shared custody of our three children. The parenting plan shows we share two weeks on, two weeks off. Since the beginning of August, my ex wife has moved out of Washington State, and has relocated to Alaska. Our children reside with me full time. We have a trial scheduled for June of 2011, but how can I get the courts to recognize I have the children full time right now so I can recieve financial support from the mother?
1 Answer from Attorneys
You need to file a motion for a temporary order of child support. In the declaration that supports your motion, you will need to explain your situation in detail, explaining how you got to where you are now. Additionally, you will need to prepare a Washington State Child Support Schedule Worksheet and submit a financial declaration, as well as supporting documentation (usually based on the local rules of your county's superior court) such as tax returns, financial institution statements, from credit cards, to checking and retirement accounts, etc.
You then need to get your soon to be ex served with the motion, which you may be able to do by mail, if this is an ongoing dissolution of marriage. If this is a case where you've been divorced and a change has occurred in your wife's circumstances, then you need to file a petition to modify the parenting plan and child support order.
Either way, I highly recommend that you hire counsel to help you in this, otherwise, with few exceptions, most people mess this process up, necessitating repeated trips to the courthouse and costs to redo that which they've already done several times. If you can afford to, you will do yourself a huge favor by hiring someone to take care of this for you.