My name is Jason Castle. I’m an attorney at Jaburg Wilk, and my practice areas are family law and criminal defense.
A resolution management conference – often called an RMC – is one of the first times the parties will end up going to court. Most of my clients when they come in are scared of court and don’t want to go. So the RMC ends up being their first opportunity to be a party in a lawsuit, and to go to court. The RMC sounds scary as well. It is not. It is primarily just a scheduling conference.
However, it is an important step in the process towards litigation. It typically is scheduled somewhere between 45 and 60 days after the Respondent files his or her response, and the order setting the RMC will require the parties to have a settlement meeting prior to the RMC.
During the settlement meeting, depending on where the parties are in the litigation process, some people come in already having an idea of what they want to do in order to resolve their divorce. Others do not. That’s a good time to set what are called temporary orders.
Temporary orders are the rules or the orders that will apply between that point in time and the final decree. During the RMC, you will then go to be in the court. They’ll tell the court, These are our issues. This is how long we need for trial. The court will look at its calendar, talk to the parties to find out when it’s good for them, and schedule the trial.
By: Jason Castle
My name is Jason Castle. I’m an attorney at Jaburg Wilk, and my practice areas are family law and criminal defense.
A resolution management conference – often called an RMC – is one of the first times the parties will end up going to court. Most of my clients when they come in are scared of court and don’t want to go. So the RMC ends up being their first opportunity to be a party in a lawsuit, and to go to court. The RMC sounds scary as well. It is not. It is primarily just a scheduling conference.
However, it is an important step in the process towards litigation. It typically is scheduled somewhere between 45 and 60 days after the Respondent files his or her response, and the order setting the RMC will require the parties to have a settlement meeting prior to the RMC.
During the settlement meeting, depending on where the parties are in the litigation process, some people come in already having an idea of what they want to do in order to resolve their divorce. Others do not. That’s a good time to set what are called temporary orders.
Temporary orders are the rules or the orders that will apply between that point in time and the final decree. During the RMC, you will then go to be in the court. They’ll tell the court, These are our issues. This is how long we need for trial. The court will look at its calendar, talk to the parties to find out when it’s good for them, and schedule the trial.
By: Jason Castle
My name is C.D. Owens. I am 91 years of age and I’ve been practicing law for 64 years. I approach the whole subject on the practice of law on the basis that the best interests of whatever kind of person you’re dealing with at the time, that their problems are paramount and that we are obligated and duty bound ethically and otherwise to give them the very best that we have and we’re pretty good.
I was recently asked by a judge before whom I tried a case in the preceding 4 or 5 hours she came back out to where I was packing up my briefcase, sat on the edge of the table and said C.D. why in the hell are you still doing this? I wonder why you stay with it this long. I said, because I like what I do. These problems will get people off balance so that they can’t even think straight. The biggest problem in that situation is to help ourselves in counseling and get them to the point where they can think straight.
Actually, I think one of the most important things that someone looking for an attorney can and should do, and I always tell them this when they first come to us as prospects, go look at our website, go check our credentials, go check our ratings. We are rated very highly. They should check us out. Always look at the backgrounds and experience of the people when you’re hiring and you’re hiring a lawyer. And don’t hire a lawyer ever, unless you have every confidence that you can depend on that lawyer, that the lawyer can be honest and truthful with you and that they will give 280%.
By: CD Owens
My name is C.D. Owens. I am 91 years of age and I’ve been practicing law for 64 years. I approach the whole subject on the practice of law on the basis that the best interests of whatever kind of person you’re dealing with at the time, that their problems are paramount and that we are obligated and duty bound ethically and otherwise to give them the very best that we have and we’re pretty good.
I was recently asked by a judge before whom I tried a case in the preceding 4 or 5 hours she came back out to where I was packing up my briefcase, sat on the edge of the table and said C.D. why in the hell are you still doing this? I wonder why you stay with it this long. I said, because I like what I do. These problems will get people off balance so that they can’t even think straight. The biggest problem in that situation is to help ourselves in counseling and get them to the point where they can think straight.
Actually, I think one of the most important things that someone looking for an attorney can and should do, and I always tell them this when they first come to us as prospects, go look at our website, go check our credentials, go check our ratings. We are rated very highly. They should check us out. Always look at the backgrounds and experience of the people when you’re hiring and you’re hiring a lawyer. And don’t hire a lawyer ever, unless you have every confidence that you can depend on that lawyer, that the lawyer can be honest and truthful with you and that they will give 280%.
By: CD Owens
A wage assignment is something that the court does when the payer of child support is employed, if he has a job, an employer, somebody who pays him salary twice a month or once a month. The court will issue an order to his employer instructing him to deduct the amount of child support on the court’s order for child support from his salary each time a check is written to him.
So it can be twice a month, once a week, once a month and any changes that the employer wants to make, needs to make has to go through the court. If anyone has any difficulty with that, they are free to call us anytime.
By: CD Owens
A wage assignment is something that the court does when the payer of child support is employed, if he has a job, an employer, somebody who pays him salary twice a month or once a month. The court will issue an order to his employer instructing him to deduct the amount of child support on the court’s order for child support from his salary each time a check is written to him.
So it can be twice a month, once a week, once a month and any changes that the employer wants to make, needs to make has to go through the court. If anyone has any difficulty with that, they are free to call us anytime.
By: CD Owens
Hi. My name is Larry Hirsch, and I practice exclusively in the domestic relations group at Jaburg & Wilk. Parenting coordinators are appointed by the court, and the main thing that they do is help parents make decisions when the parents can’t agree. Look, the parties are getting divorced. Clearly they’re not seeing eye to eye on everything, and more often than not they don’t see eye to eye on parental decisions, nor can they make even the most simplistic agreements on their own. And so a lot of times somebody needs some help, and that’s where parenting coordinators come into play.
Parenting coordinators are often either other family lawyers who are well-versed in custodial litigation, or they’re mental health professionals or medical doctors.
What kinds of issues are appropriate for what we call a PC to oversee? They’re issues like school, vacations, the change of a parenting day, the right of first refusal, babysitters, caregivers, even medical arrangements, medical decisions, which doctors they’re going to see. In other words, these are often things that people shouldn’t be litigating about. They shouldn’t be spending $10,000 on the issue of should I be picking up the kid at 3:15 on Thursday or 3 o’clock on Thursday? So that’s where parenting coordinators come into play – highly beneficial for the parties, saves a ton of money, also helps everybody’s mental health because things are handled quickly by the parenting coordinator.
Now, what are parenting coordinators not for? The main thing that a parenting coordinator is not for is making decisions with regard to decision-making authority or custody. In other words, if you are already divorced and you want to change your custodial access schedule – let’s say it’s week on/week off – and you don’t think father should be seeing the children that much any longer, the parenting coordinator is not the right person to go to for that. Unfortunately, the court is.
By: Laurence Hirsch
Hi. My name is Larry Hirsch, and I practice exclusively in the domestic relations group at Jaburg & Wilk. Parenting coordinators are appointed by the court, and the main thing that they do is help parents make decisions when the parents can’t agree. Look, the parties are getting divorced. Clearly they’re not seeing eye to eye on everything, and more often than not they don’t see eye to eye on parental decisions, nor can they make even the most simplistic agreements on their own. And so a lot of times somebody needs some help, and that’s where parenting coordinators come into play.
Parenting coordinators are often either other family lawyers who are well-versed in custodial litigation, or they’re mental health professionals or medical doctors.
What kinds of issues are appropriate for what we call a PC to oversee? They’re issues like school, vacations, the change of a parenting day, the right of first refusal, babysitters, caregivers, even medical arrangements, medical decisions, which doctors they’re going to see. In other words, these are often things that people shouldn’t be litigating about. They shouldn’t be spending $10,000 on the issue of should I be picking up the kid at 3:15 on Thursday or 3 o’clock on Thursday? So that’s where parenting coordinators come into play – highly beneficial for the parties, saves a ton of money, also helps everybody’s mental health because things are handled quickly by the parenting coordinator.
Now, what are parenting coordinators not for? The main thing that a parenting coordinator is not for is making decisions with regard to decision-making authority or custody. In other words, if you are already divorced and you want to change your custodial access schedule – let’s say it’s week on/week off – and you don’t think father should be seeing the children that much any longer, the parenting coordinator is not the right person to go to for that. Unfortunately, the court is.
By: Laurence Hirsch
I’m Kathi Sandweiss. I’m the Chair of the appellate practice section at Jaburg and Wilk.
You can appeal basically any final judgement, and that means you can appeal a dissolution, but it’s not as if you’re no longer divorced. You’re not appealing the fact of the divorce. What you’re appealing typically is about money. It can be about something else, but typically somebody will appeal a distribution of property, for example. And a lot of times that will go back to what the lower court determined was the value, for example, of a business. And the value of that business will then impact how your property is distributed.
One of the basic errors that someone alleges in the divorce decree, in the dissolution decree is that a business was not valued properly. So, that goes back to a dueling expert standard. My expert witness, say, valued my art practice at $300,000. Your expert witness valued my business at $500,000, and that’ll determine a lot of how much money is distributed to each party. The problem with it is you’re looking at credibility of witnesses, and you don’t want to be in the position of asking the higher court to determine that there was a factual error because that’s a much tougher standard on appeal.
By: Kathi Sandweiss
I’m Kathi Sandweiss. I’m the Chair of the appellate practice section at Jaburg and Wilk.
You can appeal basically any final judgement, and that means you can appeal a dissolution, but it’s not as if you’re no longer divorced. You’re not appealing the fact of the divorce. What you’re appealing typically is about money. It can be about something else, but typically somebody will appeal a distribution of property, for example. And a lot of times that will go back to what the lower court determined was the value, for example, of a business. And the value of that business will then impact how your property is distributed.
One of the basic errors that someone alleges in the divorce decree, in the dissolution decree is that a business was not valued properly. So, that goes back to a dueling expert standard. My expert witness, say, valued my art practice at $300,000. Your expert witness valued my business at $500,000, and that’ll determine a lot of how much money is distributed to each party. The problem with it is you’re looking at credibility of witnesses, and you don’t want to be in the position of asking the higher court to determine that there was a factual error because that’s a much tougher standard on appeal.
By: Kathi Sandweiss
Hi, my name is Mitchell Reichman. I’m a board certified specialist in family law and chair of the Family Law Department at Jaburg & Wilk. Opting out is choosing to resolve a family law dispute outside the traditional judicial system.
One method of opting out is choosing mediation as an alternative to resolving disputes. Mediation can only occur by agreement. A judge has no jurisdiction or authority to order people to mediate. It is a voluntary process. There are many potential advantages of mediating a family law dispute.
First, the parties select the person who will be their mediator. Next, the parties can decide which issues will be submitted to the mediator. They have the choice of trying to resolve all of their issues in mediation or perhaps, only some of the issues in mediation where some issues need to be litigated.
Mediation is also an alternative that can be tailored to suit the parties’ particular time schedules. It occurs in a private office and not a public courtroom. What occurs in a mediation proceeding is confidential. Although, if there is an agreement, the agreement will be adopted by the court and then, become public. The parties can also choose to mediate with or without lawyers. Now, there’s a danger to that. There’s a big risk when parties mediate without lawyers and we don’t typically recommend it. But, it is an alternative particularly if there’s an issue that is relatively simple where the parties believe they do not need the presence of their lawyer with them during all of the time with the mediator.
Also, other professionals can be brought in to a mediation process. Professional financial planners, business evaluation experts, or even mental health professionals can be part of a mediation process. All based on choices made by the parties and not decisions imposed on them by a judicial officer. Given all of these potential advantages, we often find that opting out by engaging in mediation helps us reach our goal of maximizing the probability that our clients obtain a favorable outcome in their family law dispute.
Hi, my name is Mitchell Reichman. I’m a board certified specialist in family law and chair of the Family Law Department at Jaburg & Wilk. Opting out is choosing to resolve a family law dispute outside the traditional judicial system.
One method of opting out is choosing mediation as an alternative to resolving disputes. Mediation can only occur by agreement. A judge has no jurisdiction or authority to order people to mediate. It is a voluntary process. There are many potential advantages of mediating a family law dispute.
First, the parties select the person who will be their mediator. Next, the parties can decide which issues will be submitted to the mediator. They have the choice of trying to resolve all of their issues in mediation or perhaps, only some of the issues in mediation where some issues need to be litigated.
Mediation is also an alternative that can be tailored to suit the parties’ particular time schedules. It occurs in a private office and not a public courtroom. What occurs in a mediation proceeding is confidential. Although, if there is an agreement, the agreement will be adopted by the court and then, become public. The parties can also choose to mediate with or without lawyers. Now, there’s a danger to that. There’s a big risk when parties mediate without lawyers and we don’t typically recommend it. But, it is an alternative particularly if there’s an issue that is relatively simple where the parties believe they do not need the presence of their lawyer with them during all of the time with the mediator.
Also, other professionals can be brought in to a mediation process. Professional financial planners, business evaluation experts, or even mental health professionals can be part of a mediation process. All based on choices made by the parties and not decisions imposed on them by a judicial officer. Given all of these potential advantages, we often find that opting out by engaging in mediation helps us reach our goal of maximizing the probability that our clients obtain a favorable outcome in their family law dispute.
Learn about the difference between sole legal decision making from joint legal decision making and joint physical custody of children in Arizona. There are very large differences between sole custody of a child and joint custody. With sole custody, one parent will be able to unilaterally make all major decisions for the children. The other parent is still entitled to obtain his or her children’s medical records, educational records, and counseling records. That other parent just does not have the legal right to decide what medical care his or her child receives, the school the child attends, or the extracurricular activities of the child may participate.
Parents with joint legal custody, on the other hand, have to agree before there are any changes to the children’s school, doctor, and other major decisions affecting the children. Most judges in Arizona award joint legal custody unless the judge determines there has been significant domestic violence, substance abuse, or child abuse.
Call the child custody attorneys at Hildebrand Law, PC at (480)305-8300 to speak to one of our child custody lawyers.
Author: Chris Hildebrand
Learn about the difference between sole legal decision making from joint legal decision making and joint physical custody of children in Arizona. There are very large differences between sole custody of a child and joint custody. With sole custody, one parent will be able to unilaterally make all major decisions for the children. The other parent is still entitled to obtain his or her children’s medical records, educational records, and counseling records. That other parent just does not have the legal right to decide what medical care his or her child receives, the school the child attends, or the extracurricular activities of the child may participate.
Parents with joint legal custody, on the other hand, have to agree before there are any changes to the children’s school, doctor, and other major decisions affecting the children. Most judges in Arizona award joint legal custody unless the judge determines there has been significant domestic violence, substance abuse, or child abuse.
Call the child custody attorneys at Hildebrand Law, PC at (480)305-8300 to speak to one of our child custody lawyers.
Author: Chris Hildebrand
An existing child support order can be modified if you are able to show a significant and continuing change of circumstances. And what I mean by that, is that you have a change in parenting time, in income, expenses, perhaps the insurance covering the child has changed, something that is related to child support that has changed. There’s basically two ways to go about doing it. One is what I’ll call a regular petition to modify child support. The other is a simplfied way of doing it. If you are able to show that the changed circumstances have the effect of a 15% change in child support, you can file your petition and if the other side does not respond to it, the change is automatic. The court signs an automatic order. If you have any other questions about changing a current order of child support, please contact me at Hildebrand Law. The phone number is, (480) 305-8300. Thank you.
To modify an existing child support order, contact an Arizona divorce attorney.
An existing child support order can be modified if you are able to show a significant and continuing change of circumstances. And what I mean by that, is that you have a change in parenting time, in income, expenses, perhaps the insurance covering the child has changed, something that is related to child support that has changed. There’s basically two ways to go about doing it. One is what I’ll call a regular petition to modify child support. The other is a simplfied way of doing it. If you are able to show that the changed circumstances have the effect of a 15% change in child support, you can file your petition and if the other side does not respond to it, the change is automatic. The court signs an automatic order. If you have any other questions about changing a current order of child support, please contact me at Hildebrand Law. The phone number is, (480) 305-8300. Thank you.
To modify an existing child support order, contact an Arizona divorce attorney.
When a parent loses his or her job, the answer is nothing. Nothing happens to child support. A parent who loses his or her job continues to be obligated to pay the court ordered amount of child support, whether or not a parent is working, a parent has an increase in income, a decrease in income, it’s that parent’s obligation to modify child support and that parent should seek legal advice immediately upon losing his or her job. Call me for more information. Greg Davis, Davis Limited, (602) 279-1900.
By: Greg Davis
When a parent loses his or her job, the answer is nothing. Nothing happens to child support. A parent who loses his or her job continues to be obligated to pay the court ordered amount of child support, whether or not a parent is working, a parent has an increase in income, a decrease in income, it’s that parent’s obligation to modify child support and that parent should seek legal advice immediately upon losing his or her job. Call me for more information. Greg Davis, Davis Limited, (602) 279-1900.
By: Greg Davis
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