child support award through the DOJ every three years upon a showing of change in circumstances. If child support is awarded through a circuit court case, the parties can either make payments directly or apply to have payments collected through the DOJ. If one party disagrees with direct payments, they can apply for payments to be made through the DOJ. If unmarried parents agree on parenting time and don’t want court intervention on custody, they may opt to simply obtain a DOJ child support award which will garnish the paying parent directly. Going back to trial narrowing strategies, in Oregon, we have this notion of trial by ambush. The reality is, you’ve likely already exchanged a large percentage of the documents you intend to offer at trial. If you’re interested in shortening trial, consider stipulating before the trial starts to certain exhibits, like text messages, school records and medical records. You can avoid having a custodian of records appear or arguments about the weight of the evidence and save significant time by communicating with counsel before trial starts. While you’re communicating with counsel, you might consider stipulations to remote testimony. Filing stipulated orders in advance of trial saves hearings and arguments that the court would otherwise have to hear and decide. Judges tend to appreciate a well-written trial memorandum in advance of a trial. Aside from the obvious benefits, this will allow you to waive opening. Attorneys disagree about the appropriate length of a trial memorandum. You may also consider additional motions to narrow issues, such as a motion for a separate trial or to bifurcate issues. Finally, consider trimming the fat. This is a bench trial, there is no jury. If you have ten witnesses willing to testify to the fact one parent never made it to the child’s soccer game, perhaps one witness will suffice. This is where knowing your judge will really pay off. Family law can be intimidating because it touches on so many areas of the law, from railroad retirement to bankruptcy and everything in between. However, the fact patterns start looking familiar very quickly and issue-spotting isn’t necessarily difficult. You can build a community of experts to help you with the specialized areas. A good portion of family law comes down to soft skills and empathizing with clients. I didn’t spend much time talking about client control and there’s a good reason for that. Most injury attorneys are already excellent at setting expectations. Often, that’s what domestic relations is about. I remember a practitioner saying to potential clients something to the effect, “At the end of this divorce, you will not be happy. But my goal is to leave you the least dissatisfied possible.” In closing, Oregon needs more family law attorneys. You are the perfect candidate. You know how to put together a case. You love advocating. Yes, it’s stressful, but there are a ton of deserving clients that need your help and plenty of attorneys willing to show you the ropes. You might consider starting with just a property division divorce or just custody. Ideally, the parties would be largely in agreement. Oh, and as for Smith. He got his day in court. He eventually conceded to paying child support, not that he had a choice. But whatever makes him feel like a hero to his kids is fine by me. 1. Research examining the associations among child support, parental conflict, and contact generally supports the belief of complementarity between child support and contact. Parenting time has been shown to be positively associated with payment of child support. Smith doesn’t want to hear this but paying support benefits both him and his kids. Hofferth SL, Forry ND, Peters HE. Child Support, Father-Child Contact, and Preteens’ Involvement with Nonresidential Fathers: Racial/Ethnic Differences. J Fam Econ Issues. 2010 Mar 1;31(1):14-32. doi: 10.1007/s10834-009-9172-9. PMID: 20357896; PMCID: PMC2847273. Tools Lawyers Use continued from p. 19 20 Trial Lawyer | Summer 2024
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