Changing your final parenting plan or parenting plan decree requires leaping a few hurdles. These are designed to dissuade a party from easily disrupting the lives and routines of the children involved. The process of modifying a parenting plan can be difficult for...
Seattle Family Law Blog
Spousal Maintenance-Making Sure it gets Paid
Making Sure it gets Paid. An order to pay maintenance typically requires an obligor spouse to make monthly payments to the other spouse (or domestic partner). Payments are often made directly to the spouse, i.e. by check or money order (one should never pay...
Spousal Maintenance-The Basics
Spousal maintenance (or alimony as it is known in other states) is awarded to the economically disadvantaged spouse, during and after dissolution of a marriage or domestic partnership, or a legal separation. Payments are meant to help a spouse with monthly needs like...
How is Child Support Calculated?
Children are not cheap. Married or unmarried, parents alike understand this shortly after their child (or children) come into the world. The new parents' world suddenly turns from budgeting for themselves, to themselves plus one-often, followed by another, sometimes...
The Court of Appeals
Trial courts are entitled to broad discretion in dissolution proceedings. In re Marriage of Wright, 179 Wn. App. 257, 261, 319 P.3d 45 (2013). Because the trial court is in the best position to determine what is fair, its decisions will be reversed only if there has...
Temporary Support
On a spousal support basis, a homemaker is not required to seek employment, pawn jewelry, or exhaust credit before they are entitled to spousal support as long as need is shown. Further, an unemployed individual need not pauperize themselves by selling assets to...
When Is A Professional Education Valued?
In order to have value, a professional degree must have been procured. It is more than a simple Bachelor of Arts or Science degree. For ease of identification, let's say it is a doctor, lawyer or a Master's Degree. The question then becomes: has the community received...
5 factors to consider when telling children about a divorce
The way parents talk to their children about a divorce in Washington is key to ensuring the kids cope with the news well.Going through a divorce can be an overwhelming and complicated process. According to the Washington State Department of Health, there were 24,847...
Allocating credit card debt is part of the process of ending a marriage
A divorce can become contentious over the issue of how to properly allocate debts acquired by the spouses during their marriage.Credit Card Insider observes that divorce is sometimes messy not just because of the emotional aspect but because of the fact that a divorce...
Property Division in Washington
Property is divided in a just and equitable manner in the state of Washington. There are many factors that come into play. Parties often equate a just and equitable division with an equal division. This is wrong. Courts have a great deal of latitude in interpreting...