Decoupling Seattle Family Law and Divorce Blog

There are 4 basic ways of appealing a court decision you don’t agree with:

1. a Revision (to a Judge);
2. a Reconsideration (back to the judge or commissioner who just ruled);
3. an Appeal (to the Court of Appeals); and
4. a CR60 motion (for cases of clerical error, fraud, etc.).

We looked at Revisions in an earlier post.  Now for Reconsiderations.

While revisions only apply to hearings in front of commissioners, you can file a reconsideration of any Order or any Final Decree, either in front of a commissioner or a judge.   A Reconsideration is exactly what it sounds like – you’re asking the judge or commissioner to reconsider her ruling.

Family law Reconsiderations are mentioned in the Local Family Law Rules at LFLR 5(c)(8) , but all the rule says is “See LCR 7(b)(5)” – sending you to the Local Civil Rules.  When you go actually go look up LCR 7(b)(5), it isn’t even about Reconsiderations – it’s about “Form of Motion and Responsive Pleadings.”  If you read the next item, LCR 7(b)(6), you’ll find “Motions to Reconsider,” and perhaps believe that you’re finally going to get an answer.

But psych!  LCR 7(b)(6) just tells you to go to LCR 59. When you finally get to LCR 59, it just sends you back to LCR7(b)(4), and none of these various rules says anything about deadlines.  For that you have to go to state civil rule 59 (CR 59) – which tells you that the deadline is ten days.  Yes, the rules are a mess.  Yes, I’ve already written to, and spoken to, the Clerk’s office to try to rectify this. They are working on it. Hopefully a lot of it will be fixed by Summer 2009.

Once you get the basic rules down, there are a few other other points to keep in mind:

• One thing the court rules don’t tell you is that the Family Law Motions office (W-291 in Seattle, A1222 in Kent) has a special, colored form for Reconsiderations (salmon-colored, more or less).  It’s not on the clerk’s website either.  Cool, huh?

• Another thing the rules don’t tell you is that you can sometimes add evidence to your Reconsideration of an Order on a motion. This is because of the practical reality that people usually just get 14 days notice of a motion, and don’t always have a chance to get their evidence together properly.  If you want to add evidence to a Reconsideration of a hearing, you’ll have to explain why you didn’t include that evidence the first time – and expect the other side to object.

• One interesting corollary to how new evidence is handled between Reconsiderations and Revisions is that lawyers will often ask for a reconsideration of a commisioner’s order even when they are pretty sure they will lose, just so they can get in the new evidence they want the judge to see on revision.

• Yet another thing that’s not explicitly stated in the rules is that reconsiderations don’t have hearings.  You just file your papers and wait. This is why LCR59(c) asks you to include a self-addressed stamped envelope for both you and the other party (or lawyer).

• One odd rule about reconsiderations is that the other party does not get to respond unless the judge/commissioner specifically requests a response.  This is so you don’t have to waste time responding to a frivolous reconsideration that the court wasn’t going to see favorably anyway.  If the judge/commissioner does ask for a response, then the party asking for the Reconsideration will then get two days for a strict reply from the date of receiving the response.

• As a practical matter, the court will often specify a date by which it wants the Reconsideration, then give a date two days later for the reply.   LCR 59 does not specify a time of day for strict reply (strict replies on motions on the family law motions calendar, for example, are due at noon, per LFLR 6(b)), so just get it filed by 4:30 and served upon the opposing party (or attorney, if she is represented) by 5:00 pm.

You have exactly 10 days to file for a Reconsideration (and serve the other parties) from the date of the order (usually the same date as the hearing). Reconsiderations on orders signed on a Wednesday or Thursday, however, may be filed two Mondays later (because 10 days after any Wednesday or Thursday falls on a weekend day).

If you wait 11 days you will be completely out of luck. These rules are pretty absolute.

An order from a hearing is usually given the day of the hearing, but a decree after a trial may not be handed down until weeks or even a couple of months after the trial.  In this case, the ten days doesn’t start ticking until the date the judge actually signs the decree.

Note that if you file for a Revision after a Reconsideration, the 10 day clock for the revision doesn’t start ticking until the date the Reconsideration is decided.  Of course, you may not actually get the order or decree until a couple of days later, but the rule says 10 days from the “date of the filing of the Commissioner’s written order of judgment on reconsideration.”

REMEMBER – Though I have attempted to craft an accurate article as of the date this is posted, these rules change frequently.  This post is for informational purposes only, and should not be relied upon in deciding what steps you should or should not take in your own case.  For that, find a good lawyer.