For most children, medical needs include routine matters such as wellness checks, sports physicals, and the occasional sprain or broken bone. Some children, however, have ongoing medical needs or specialized medical needs that necessitate frequent doctor’s visits, therapy, and certain routine services performed at home by a parent or caregiver. When a special needs child…
A parent who either pays or receives child support can ask the court to change the child support order in certain circumstances. If the child support order is less than one year old, the parent must prove that there has been a substantial change in circumstances in order to get a child support modification. If the child…
Anyone who has kids can tell you that they get sick, probably more often than you would like. Kids also have their share of broken bones and concussions, especially if they play sports. Some kids also may have chronic medical conditions that require routine treatment, such as diabetes or epilepsy. As a result, child support orders in…
In a Washington divorce, all debts are divided, even if they solely belong to one spouse or the other. While some spouses are able to agree to a division of debts, other spouses must turn to the court for the division of their debts. There are two major reasons why debt division is so important. First,…
Like many states, the state of Washington requires a waiting period before a couple can finalize their divorce. Traditionally, a waiting period was meant to be a “cooling-off” period, or one in which the parties might try to resolve their differences and reconcile. This 90-day waiting period is mandatory, even if the spouses definitely are not…
Bankruptcy is the legal process by which an individual or a married couple can discharge eligible debts, or obtain a court order that you do not have to pay one or more particular debts. This is often a solution when a couple has accrued substantial amounts of debt that they really cannot repay. In many…
Arbitration is a form of alternative dispute resolution that parties can use to resolve a legal dispute, include divorces and other family law cases. An arbitration involves both parties, each of whom is typically represented by an attorney, as well as a neutral third-party decisionmaker, who is called an arbitrator. Each side presents evidence under oath to the arbitrator,…
According to the Washington State Department of Health (DOH), there were 24,258 divorces statewide in 2015, which is the most recent year for which divorce data is available. This data also does not include those individuals who divorced out of state and later moved to Washington. The number of divorces makes up about 3.4 per…
When a divorce is filed, one or both spouses are often emotional, hurt, and unsure about getting divorced. These feelings may cause a spouse to take actions that he or she believes will hurt the other spouse. One of these tactics is running up large bills and debts with the belief that the other spouse will be…