Articles Posted in Divorce

To continue from last week’s post, here are more questions frequently asked by Washington clients involved in family law cases:

1. Am I allowed to move?

When an unmarried parent wants to move they have to consider how their move may impact their relationship with their child.  With that in mind, many unmarried parents come into our office wondering whether they are permitted to move.  The short answer is usually yes.  The longer (and more helpful answer) is that it depends.  When we say that people can move, we mean that they do have the right to move.  What they may not have the right to do is move their children.  In general, if an unmarried parent wants to move within the child’s current school district, it will not be a problem and they are free to do so.   However, if the move is outside the child’s school district boundaries, the move should be discussed with a family law attorney.  In these cases some parents may be required to provide more formal notice, and may end up needing to go to court to ask the court to permit them to move with their children.  Continue reading

In many family law cases, the parties choose to use a dispute resolution method other than going to court.  In some family law cases, parties are actually required to participate in the alternative dispute resolution process before they will be permitted access to the courts.  No matter what the reason for participating in this process, there are many benefits to using the alternative dispute resolution process in family law cases.

By way of definition, alternative dispute resolution includes informal negotiations between the parties all the way to days of arbitrating before a professional arbitrator with both parties represented by counsel.  Court orders sometimes require some level of alternative dispute resolution as a way of minimizing costs and resolving disputes without the use of the court system.  Continue reading