I was reviewing the documents for a variation of child support motion the other day, and I was amazed that the documents just to start the motion to change and the necessary reply documents had created a brief that was one and a half inches thick before either party had even appeared in Court. There were 10 documents submitted in total, just to get the proceeding going. This is a photo of that continuing record.
Both parties were represented by Counsel, and it was interesting to hear that the support payor seeking the change in support hadn’t written to the support recipient or her lawyer to propose out of Court negotiations. He simply brought a motion before the Court to deal with it all there.
Applying to Court to change support is a very time consuming and expensive process, and I estimate that the cost up to and including that first appearance was $5,000.00 for each party to the proceeding. That’s $10,000 in resources consumed just to get through a case conference at which financial disclosure is agreed to and a settlement conference date is set. In other words, there’s still a long way to go.
Had the support payor chosen direct negotiation, the parties could have exchanged financial disclosure and agreed to a meeting of clients and Counsel. This would have been a much better route to follow, instead of starting with a court claim, and this is something The New Family Law Center can help you with.
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