Trying to Avoid Future Court Appearences

It is no surprise one of the more common question I hear about private agreements is “how can I make sure they do not take me to court over this again in a year?” The stress of going to court and dealing with these issues is hard on people and most just want a fair resolution and to move on. However with issues like child custody and child support there is no way to guarantee and end is in sight.

The courts always have jurisdiction to hear child custody and child support issues, so it is always possible you can end up back in court. With some issues like spousal support the parties as part of their private agreement can decide the court has no further jurisdiction on the subject. However this is not available with many family law issues and people have a hard time understanding why they cannot just find a final solution.

Even though the court always reserves the right to hear these issues, you can take steps to make it harder for the court to modify your private agreements. The first part is making sure your agreement is part of a court order. An attorney can help you make sure the right clauses are placed in your agreement when it is submitted to the court so it becomes part of the court order. This makes it so your co-parent will have to prove “changed circumstances” before the court will listen to the issue again. It will not preclude the possibility of another action, but it puts a barrier up.

Another important way to protect your private agreements from future court involvement is to make sure it is fair. The courts will not uphold private agreements that and clearly inconsistent with what the court considers proper. By making sure you have help finding what the outcome would be in court and make sure your private agreement appears to be within the normal range of acceptable results it will be less likely to be interrupted.

It is important to realize with some family law issues you can never guarantee the courts won’t get involved, but if you are careful you and reduce the possibility the court will interrupt your private agreements.