Are you worried about seeing your kids for the holidays this year?

It is important to be proactive and make sure your parenting plan gives you the time you are entitled to, so that you can be with your children this holiday season.  If you need a parenting plan or need to enforce the one you already have, come to The Ex-Po: “Get a Parenting Plan” on Saturday, October 23, 2010.

Attorney Marie White of Pro Se University will answer your questions and teach you how to:

• Draft a motion for contempt
• Draft a motion for a parenting plan
• Serve the other party
• Schedule a hearing
• Confirm your hearing
• Conduct yourself at the hearing

The event will be held at Kent Senior Activity Center (600 East Smith Street, Kent, Washington 98030) at 11:15am. Click here to buy tickets now.  They are $19.98 if you pre-register online and $25 cash at the door.

The Ex-Po events address specific family law issues and are for people who feel stuck in the legal process.  Plan to walk away with a better understanding of your issue, what you need to do, and how to do it.  

This is an important note to pro se parties involved in a family law case in Washington state:

Washington State Child Support Schedule Worksheets have been updated.  You will be required to use the new worksheets after July 2010.  You may download the new worksheet by clicking the link below.  The worksheet is in Microsoft Word format, so you may use and edit it on your computer.

Get the New Washington State Child Support Schedule Worksheet
Click here

If you need assistance filling out this paperwork, contact Pro Se University at 877-776-7310.

All of the parties’ separate and community assets are before the court for division in a marriage or domestic partnership dissolution case.  The court must apply the statutes and case law to arrive at an equitable distribution of these assets.  Often the most valuable assets a couple owns are their real estate and their pension, retirement and 401(k) plans.  It is very important that before you participate in a settlement conference or trial of your dissolution case that you know what these very significant assets are worth.

Value before you divide.  The best way to assure both parties that your real estate and pensions are fairly divided is to first have them valued by experts.  You may also agree on these values, but if you cannot, then you must hire experts to give you reports of value.

 Appraise your real estate.  You should have your real estate valued by an appraiser who will provide an opinion of value specifically tailored to asset division in a domestic relations case.  The appraiser will personally inspect the property, consider the owner’s statements as to the property’s condition, review the public records regarding recent sales and economic trends and produce a detailed written report of his or her opinion of the property’s value.  This expert is also qualified to provide information during your settlement conference or to testify as an expert at trial if necessary.  The typical fee for a real estate appraisal report is around $500.  This may seem like a lot of money to spend, but it is worth the investment.  With this information, you will settle or try your case with accurate numbers and you will know that whatever agreement you reach was based on the right value.

You or the other party may have both pension or retirement plans and 401(k) or similar plans.  If you have a 401(k) or similar plan, you have what is called a contributory plan.  In other words, you (and often your employer) contribute your own money to the plan for your retirement.  These plans differ from noncontributory pension or retirement plans in that only the employer puts money into your noncontributory plan.  It is not uncommon for a person to have both a pension or retirement (noncontributory) plan and a 401(k) or similar (contributory) plan.   Be careful to find out which type of plan or plans you and the other party have before settling or trying your case so that a fair settlement or judgment is reached considering all assets of both parties.

Obtain a “present value” for your pension and retirement plans.  If you or the other party have pension or retirement plans, you should hire an actuary to value them.  This expert will produce a detailed written report of his or her opinion of the value of the pension or retirement plan.  This expert is also qualified to provide information during your settlement conference or to testify as an expert at trial if necessary.  The actuary will calculate the “present value” of the plans based on many factors, including the monthly benefit, the age and gender of the person receiving the benefit, whether the beneficiary is vested in the pension, and whether the person is already in retirement.  The present value of the pension is a very different number from the monthly benefit.  It is possible that a pension paying out a $2,000 monthly benefit may have a present value of several hundred thousand dollars, depending on the factors discussed above.  Once you have the present value number, you can negotiate to fairly divide it.  This valuation should cost around $250 per pension.

Obtain statements for your 401(k) or similar plans to determine their value. You do not need to pay an expert to value a 401(k) or similar plan.  To value this type of plan, you need to obtain the statement as of the date you want to value it.  For example, you may have been separated for several years and are just now getting around to finalizing your dissolution.  If you have or your spouse has continued contributing to a 401(k) plan, you would likely want to value it as of the date you separated, not the date you finalize your dissolution.  That way, only the community-property share of the 401(k) plan is divided.  If you file for dissolution close to the time you separate, your most recent statement would probably be the most appropriate to use.

If you have questions or concerns about this issue, feel free to contact Pro Se University or call us at (877) 776-7310.  Also, be sure to buy tickets to our upcoming Ex-Po- September 26, 2010.



The Washington Supreme Court decided this issue in the case of In Re the Marriage of King, 162 Wn.2d 378 (2007).  You can get a copy of the full decision from the following link:  http://www.mrsc.org/mc/courts/supreme/162wn2d/162wn2d0378.htm.  In King, the court decided that an indigent parent has no right under the Washington State Constitution to appointment of counsel at public expense in a civil family law proceeding.

The facts of King.   Brenda and Michael King were married for approximately 10 years and had three children.  During the marriage, Brenda was the primary at-home caregiver. In September 2004, the parties separated and Michael filed for dissolution of the marriage and asked to be named the children’s primary residential parent.  He was represented throughout the case.  Brenda was represented for a time, but was pro se for her five-day trial.  Michael was awarded primary care of the children and Brenda was granted a visitation schedule and joint decision-making.  Following trial, Brenda obtained counsel and moved for a new trial and requested that counsel be appointed to represent her at public expense.  The superior court denied the motion, explaining that the legislature had not provided funding for counsel. The court also cited its lack of authority to appoint an attorney without compensation. Brenda appealed.  The Washington Supreme Court affirmed the trial court’s denial of Brenda’s request for appointment of indigent counsel.

The law analyzed in King.  Brenda’s constitutional claims were primarily based on article I, section 3; article I, section 10; and article I, section 12 of the Washington State Constitution.

Washington State Constitution Article I, Section 3.  This article provides, "no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law."  The court found that Brenda's fundamental liberty interest was not at stake regarding her parenting plan because she maintained a parental relationship with her children and the opportunity to make decisions regarding their upbringing.   In addition, the court found that the State plays a meaningfully different role in a private dissolution case than it does in dependency cases or in termination of parental rights cases.  It neither applies its resources against either party nor instigates the proceeding.  In fact, the court found that state resources reduce the risk of erroneous results.

Washington State Constitution Article I, Section 10.  This article provides, "justice in all cases shall be administered openly, and without unnecessary delay."   Brenda argued that the right of access is violated by less than meaningful access.  She asserted that the right of access is violated when (1) the proceeding is adversarial; (2) crucial interests are at stake; (3) the unrepresented litigant is indigent and has made reasonable, but unsuccessful, efforts to obtain counsel; and (4) the unrepresented litigant is unable to adequately or effectively advocate for his or her interests.  The Court disagreed, finding that indigence is not a barrier to meaningful access to the courts.  It also found that the Washington courts already allow access by reducing or waiving court-imposed fees for indigent litigants. The court considered it too great a leap to include a right to publicly funded legal representation as part of the definition of “meaningful access.”  In addition, the court found that Brenda's approach would require a case-by-case hearing to determine whether the indigent parent requesting appointment of counsel has a right to counsel. The court found that such an approach would be unwieldy, time-consuming, and costly and that the proceeding might itself require appointment of counsel to present the parent's case.

The incomes of the parties. If you are planning to ask the court for a child support order or to modify a child support order you already have, be prepared to provide accurate information about your income and to make a good-faith estimate of the other party’s income if you don’t know what it is. You will need to gather your pay stubs going back at least six months and tax returns for the past two years. If you are self-employed, you will need to provide your business records, including your business tax returns. If you have not filed tax returns, then you will need to provide your W-2 forms if you are an employee or your profit and loss statement if you are self-employed. Both parties will also need to provide a Financial Declaration detailing income, living expenses, and debt expenses.

The number and ages of your children. In King County, the amount of support per child will be lower the more children you have. If your children are over age 11, their child support will be higher. Once you have calculated your incomes, you will refer to the Washington State Child Support Schedule to figure out your monthly child support per child using both the number of children you have and their ages. You will add these numbers to determine the total amount of child support each parent is responsible for. Then you will divide this amount by the percentage of income each parent earns.

Whether a parent is paying day care or health insurance for the children. If either parent is paying these expenses, then that parent is entitled to a credit against his or her share of the basic child support obligation. The credit is not 100%. It is the percent of this additional expense that the other parent should be paying. There are other extraordinary expenses that may also need to be apportioned, such as long distance transportation or private school tuition, any of which would also be divided in the same proportion as the basic support obligation. By now, you should have figured out that accurately calculating the parties’ incomes is critical to fairly calculating the child support responsibility. From your incomes flows every other calculation you will make.

Whether either parent is responsible for children from other relationships. The most important factor here is whether the other parent is actually paying for the support of these other children, or if these other children actually live in his or her household. Having a child support order that is not being actually paid does not entitle that parent to a deviation in child support. The second most important factor is that downward deviations are not automatic and are not based on a strict formula. The court engages in a balancing analysis and attempts to allocate the parties’ resources as fairly as possible among all the children of blended families. Sometimes this is not entirely possible because an older child support order that is actually being paid can severely limit the paying parent’s ability to support later children to the same extent. The perfect solution would be for this parent to ask the court to modify or adjust the first child support order, but we rarely get perfect solutions.

Other reasons for deviating upward or downward. Paragraph 3.7 of the Washington State Order of Child Support contains a checklist of twenty possible bases for ordering either an upward or a downward child support deviation, including financial responsibility for children from other relationships. If you believe that any of the other nineteen reasons apply to you, then you will need to check the box next to that reason. For any of these twenty bases for deviation, you must also complete the last section of that paragraph, “The factual basis for these reasons is as follows.” Be sure to include the amount of the deviation that you are requesting in this factual basis.

If you have questions or concerns about this issue, feel free to contact Pro Se University or call us at (877) 776-7310 for Attorney Support.  And join us for The Ex-Po: Divorce Explained.  It's happening in Seattle on September 26, 2010!

A family law case is a project. A big project. If you hire an attorney, then your attorney is your project manager. If you cannot afford or choose not to hire a lawyer, then you are your project manager. Managing your family law project will likely be one of the most challenging things you ever do.

The five stages of most family law cases. Every family law case moves through the court system on a fairly predictable path. This is probably not obvious to you as an outsider, but bear in mind that King County Superior Court hears many thousands of family law cases every year and they process every case in essentially the same way. Most family law cases go through five stages. They are: (1) filing the initial petition and response; (2) the temporary order process; (3) discovery; (4) the settlement conference; (5) the trial if settlement fails. Buried within each of these broad stages are a myriad of small projects and details that you must tackle to cross the finish line and obtain your final orders.

Break your family law case down to manageable tasks. Your family law case will be impossibly confusing and overwhelming unless you break it down to bite-size chunks and nibble through each until you’ve cleaned your plate.

The petition and response. If you are the person filing the initial petition, focus on just this part of the process. Get the forms you need, learn about how to complete the forms and file and serve them on the other party. If you have been served with a petition, you will generally have 20 days to respond if you live in Washington or 60 days to respond if you live outside of Washington. Don’t panic. Focus on getting the response forms, filling them out and filing and serving them on the petitioner.

The temporary order process. Divorce cases in King County are set for trial eleven months from the date the petition is filed. Of course, if you agree on everything right away or file a joint petition, you can finish your case much sooner. But if you do not have agreement or a joint petition, then your case could take many months to resolve. The same applies to paternity and many other family law cases. This may be too long for you to wait. For example, if you have children, you will probably want a parenting plan or child support order right away. Or you may have bills to pay or property you want to get from the other party. This means you will want to ask the Family Law court for temporary orders. You will need to learn how the family law motion process works. Then you need to get the necessary forms to file your motion and fill them out. These forms must be served on the other party. You must deliver a set of working papers to the family law court. If you are served with a motion for temporary orders, you must respond. On the hearing date, you must argue your case to the Family Law Commissioner. Once the orders are entered, you must obey them.

Discovery. Discovery means investigating the facts of your case so that when you have your settlement conference or trial, you know your situation and can explain it to the mediator or judge. Discovery can include sending Interrogatories and Requests for Production of Documents to the other party; sending subpoenas to third parties such as banks, employers, and pension plans; and deposing the other party or witnesses. Discovery can also mean hiring experts to value assets such as real estate or pension plans or to investigate your family situation so that your parenting plan is in your children’s best interests. You can also conduct informal discovery. For example, you can go to your bank and get copies of your statements. This is the information gathering phase of your family law project. It is very important that you gather this information. Otherwise you will not know whether your settlement or trial decision is fair.

Settlement conference. Most litigants in King County Superior Court family law cases must participate in a settlement conference. Most family law cases settle. This is your last opportunity to control your own litigation, rather than having a stranger to your family tell you what your future will be. The settlement conference starts with agreeing on who your settlement master or mediator will be. Then each side sends to the mediator and to each other a settlement letter with supporting documents. This letter is an offer and an explanation as to why the offer is fair. Then the parties, attorneys and mediator meet to work out an agreement. Each party and his or her attorney is in a separate room and the mediator does shuttle diplomacy between rooms, communicating offers back and forth and using his or her powers of persuasion to work out an agreement. If settlement is reached, everyone signs a Court Rule 2A agreement. Then one side drafts the final orders and the other side presents them to the court for entry.

Trial. If settlement fails, then you must take your case to trial. The trial process includes pretrial preparation, the trial itself, the court’s ruling, and drafting and presentation of the final orders based on the court’s decision.

You can do this. None of the steps described above is easy or simple. You will be on a very steep learning curve every step of the way, and there are many details involved in completing this project that are not discussed above. But your future, your financial security, and your children are worth the effort.

If you have questions or concerns about this issue, feel free to contact Pro Se University or call us at (877) 776-7310 for Attorney Support.  Also be sure to attend The Ex-Po: Divorce Explained on September 26, 2010 in Seattle.

It is not uncommon for one person in a family law case to be represented and for the other person to be self-represented. If you find yourself in this situation, there are some “rules of engagement” you should understand when dealing with opposing counsel.

Communicate with the Opposing Attorney and his or her law office without compromising your case. The Opposing Attorney is not your attorney. He or she is the other party’s attorney and has an overriding duty of loyalty to that person, not to you. The same applies for the Opposing Attorney’s secretary, paralegal and other staff. Whenever you communicate with Opposing Counsel, remember that he or she may use against you whatever you disclose in those communications. The attorney has no obligation to maintain confidentiality of your communications and may in fact use them to your disadvantage.

The safest way to communicate with Opposing Counsel is in writing. Draft your pleadings, letters and emails carefully and review them one last time before delivering them. If you must communicate by phone or in person, stick to the issues at hand, and keep the conversation on a professional level. This can be quite a challenge, especially after a family law hearing where one party has gotten an unfavorable ruling. If that party is you, take a deep breath, step outside for a couple of minutes, go to the bathroom, or do whatever is necessary to calm down so that you can concentrate on working with the attorney to draft the orders in compliance with the court’s ruling.

Understand what the Opposing Attorney’s role is, and what it is not. The Opposing Attorney is not your attorney. He or she represents the interests of the other party to your case. Often the other party’s interests are the opposite of your interests. If you do not have representation, you must advocate for yourself, so be careful not to rely on the Opposing Attorney to do this for you. This is especially important regarding drafting of documents. If you are presented with a document to sign that was drafted by the Opposing Attorney, take your time reviewing it and if possible consult with an attorney before signing it.

Negotiate with the Opposing Attorney. As an unrepresented person, you may, and in fact you should, contact the Opposing Attorney directly as necessary in your case. For example, if he or she has scheduled a hearing for a date and time when you cannot be there, you can contact the Opposing Attorney’s office to ask for the hearing to be continued to a different date. If it’s time to schedule a settlement conference, you will need to cooperate with Opposing Counsel to get this done. Sometimes you will need to cooperate with Opposing Counsel to draft joint notices to the Court, such as the Confirmation of Issues or the Joint Statement of Evidence for trial.

Be courteous toward the Opposing Attorney and insist on courteous treatment in return. Just as with any other person in your life, you should give to and receive from Opposing Counsel the normal courtesies. You and the Opposing Attorney must work together to get your case done. All of your contacts with the Opposing Attorney should result in progress, even if one or the other of you does not get the desired result every time.

If you have questions or concerns about this issue, feel free to contact Pro Se University or call us at (877) 776-7310 for Attorney Support.

There are three possible ways to serve the other party with your family law petition.

Personal service. Personal service means someone over age 18 (not you) handing the papers to the other party personally or leaving them at the house of his or her usual abode with some person of suitable age and discretion then resident therein. The papers cannot be dropped on the doorstep or stuffed in the mailbox. You can have anyone, including a professional process server, do this. If you have a nonprofessional do this, you must have him or her complete a Return of Service, which you will file with the court. Professional process servers have their own forms, which they will fill out and send to you after the job is done.

Service by mail. When you cannot with reasonable diligence serve the respondent personally, you may serve by mail, but only if the person’s usual mailing address is a physical address. You must file a motion to serve by mail. If the court grants your motion, serving by mail a three-step procedure, which you must have someone over age 18 do for you. You cannot do this yourself.

Have your process server leave a copy at the other party’s usual mailing address with a person of suitable age and discretion who is a resident, proprietor, or agent thereof. "Usual mailing address" does not include a post office box or the other party's place of employment.

Have your process server mail another copy by first-class mail, postage prepaid, to the other party at his or her usual mailing address. Service is deemed complete on the tenth day after the required mailing.

Have your process server complete the Return of Service. Professionals have their own in-house return of service forms. Your server will fill it out and mail it to you when the job is done. If you have a nonprofessional serve the other party or put the second copy in the mail, have him or her complete a Return of Service form. List on this form the documents that this person left at the other party’s mailing address and put in the mail to the other party. Fill in the date, time, and address that this person dropped off and mailed the documents, then have him or her sign and date the Return of Service. File it with the court.

Service by publication. If you cannot find the other party within the state, you may file a motion with the court requesting permission to serve by publication. Service by publication does not give the court personal jurisdiction over the other party unless you can prove that he or she is hiding either in or out of Washington to avoid being served or to avoid paying debts.

If the court grants your motion, you must publish the summons in a newspaper of general circulation in the county where the action is brought once a week for six consecutive weeks. Most local newspapers are “newspapers of general circulation.” Choose one and call to find out if it accepts legal notices. If so, you can publish your summons there. The cost of publication will likely be $125 or more, depending on the newspaper you choose. When the publication has occurred, the newspaper will mail you a Proof of Publication to file with the court.

If you have questions or concerns about this issue, feel free to contact Pro Se University or call us at (877) 776-7310 for Attorney Support.  And be sure to come to The Ex-Po: Divorce Explained on September 26, 2010 in Seattle, Washington.