Watch What You Agree To

Often parties with children work amicably to resolve the day to day decisions involving their children.  This is generally harmless with respect to the ongoing relationships between the parties and is actually good for the children to see cooperation between their parents.  However, any long-term agreements with respect to parenting time could backfire on you.  For example, agreeing to change the exchange days/times could result in an unintended permanent modification of parenting time.  If you’ve been involved in a custody battle, you also realize that any modification of parenting time may also directly impact the child support order.

If you are contemplating making a change to a parenting plan, you should first speak with your attorney.  Our experienced attorneys at Trullinger & Wenk can assist you in determining whether the change is in the children’s and your best interest and discuss the proper way to memorialize the change so as to avoid incorrect assumptions or interpretations by the Court should you end up before the Judge explaining why the change was made and attempting to show the intentions of the parties when entering in to the agreement.  Proper verbiage and formatting of an agreement can help you to avoid future disputes and possible litigation in order to determine both parties understanding of the agreement.

Rule 69 states that “an agreement between the parties in writing is binding”.  Therefore it is imperitive that any written agreements be reviewed by your attorney before sending them to the other party.

If you have questions about deviating from Court orders, or if you are contemplating entering in to an agreement, Call us at 623-201-8773 so we can ensure your wishes in entering in to the agreement are protected and answer any questions you may have about doing so.