Your parenting plan needs to include a way for you and your co-parent to resolve disputes. If you haven’t agreed in advance to a methodology for conflict resolution, it could end up causing very big problems later on down the road. What kind of problems? Long, drawn-out and costly family law proceedings.
No matter how well you and our co-parent get along right now, there’s probably a reason why the two of you are incompatible as romantic partners, and this incompatibility could rise up later in the form of a heated disagreement regarding how your child should be raised. To avoid the possibility of a stressful and expensive legal disagreement, parents can include the following provisions that pertain to conflict resolution within their parenting plans:
1. A method for resolving disputes out of court
When you sign a contract with an investment institution, embedded within that contract will be an “arbitration clause,” that requires you to resolve disputes through an out-of-court arbitration process. Parents may want to do the same to avoid the potential expense of family court trial proceedings if a disagreement arises. To achieve this, the parents can agree to a specifically worded parenting provision that states they will utilize a licensed mediator or professional arbitrator to hear and decide their disagreements.
In addition to requiring the resolution of disputes through arbitration, the parents should indicate how they will pay for the arbitration process. Perhaps they will indicate that Parent A will pay for 30 percent of the proceedings and Parent B will pay for 70 percent of the proceedings. They should also indicate how to start the proceedings. Usually, one parent will notify the other parent via certified mail.
2. A method for updating the parenting plan
One way to avoid the chance of disagreement and difficulty is to create a parenting plan that’s sufficiently flexible, so that the parents can update it in response to changing conditions in their families. The parents may want to agree to meet once, twice or three times annually to discuss whether either of them wishes to make changes. They can also agree to provide one another with written notice to change the plan should an emergency issue arise.
Create a parenting that serves your and your children’s best interests
Creating a sound parenting plan is a delicate process that requires foresight and legal expertise. With an in-depth understanding of California state family law and knowledge of how parents have successfully organized their parenting plans in the past, Arcadia parents can prepare in advance for just about any situation.