Last week the Seattle Weekly ran a cover story detailing a supposed “systemic bias” against men in King County’s family court system.
In a rebuttal article – currently posted on Slog, the blog for Seattle’s other weekly, The Stranger – Rao & Pierce managing partner Christopher Rao takes issue with the article’s conclusions, arguing that decisions in family court…
My wife and I are in the process of getting a divorce. We have two little kids, and very different ideas about how much time they should spend with each of us. My wife says that the children should live mostly with her, while I believe that the children should have equal time with both of us. We recently…
I was divorced from my wife about five years ago. We have two kids, who were toddlers when we split up. When we divorced, I agreed that the kids would live mostly with their mom, and that I would have them with me every other weekend. We have a final parenting plan that formalizes this agreement. Now that the…
If you’ve got a parenting plan from a Washington Court, you’ve probably noticed a section which designates either you or your ex “as the custodian of the children solely for purposes of all other state and federal statutes which require a designation or determination of custody.” Although the paragraph goes on to say that the designation ” shall not affect…
In this series, we have been examining Washington cases which help us to understand what exactly the “best interests of the child” standard means, and how it works when applied to a specific family. Our last article examined the fifth factor under RCW 26.09.187(3)(a) – “the child’s relationship with siblings and other adults, as well as…
In this series, we’re reviewing Washington cases which help us to understand what exactly the “best interests of the child” standard means, and how it works when applied to a specific family. Our last article examined the fourth factor under RCW 26.09.187(3)(a) – “the emotional needs and developmental level of the child.“ Today, we’re looking at…
In this series, we’re reviewing Washington cases which help us to understand what exactly the “best interests of the child” standard means, and how it works when applied to a specific family. Last week we discussed the third factor, the “past and future performance of parenting functions“, which relates to each parent’s ability to take care of…
In this series, we’re taking a look at some Washington cases that shed some light on to what the “best interests of the child” standard means, and how it works when applied to a specific family. Last week we discussed the second factor, “the agreements of the parties.” In that article we saw just how much discretion a…
In this series, we’re taking a look at some Washington cases that shed some light on to what the “best interests of the child” standard means, and how it works when applied to a specific family. Last week we discussed the first, and most important factor, “the relative strength, nature, and stability of the child’s relationship with each parent.” …
In this series, we’re taking a look at some Washington cases that shed some light on to what the “best interests of the child” standard means, and how it works when applied to a specific family. Today, in this second article in the series, we’re taking a look at the first of the seven factors that Washington courts must consider…
