MODIFICATION OF PARENTING PLAN

Parenting Plan Attorney in Bellevue

Modification of Your Parenting Plan

A Court Will Only Modify the Parenting Plan if the ParentsAgree to the Change or if you Prove that a Substantial Change in Circumstances Has Occurred.

If you and the other parent agree that a Parenting Plan should be modified, William Buchanan can prepare the agreed Parenting Plan and submit it to the court for you. However, if the other parent does not agree to your proposed change to the Parenting Plan, he will help you prepare the petition and other documents that you need to submit to the court to support your request for modification.  

With your petition, you must present evidence that persuades the court that, based on facts that have arisen from the date of the entry of the prior Parenting Plan or that were unknown to the court at the time that it entered the prior plan, a substantial change has occurred in the circumstances of the child or of the other parent and that the modification is in the best interest of the child and is necessary to serve the best interests of the child.

Under Washington Law, the court shall retain the residential schedule in the existing Parenting Plan unless:

1. Your child actually lives with you for a substantially greater amount of time than the existing Parenting Plan grants to you;

2. The child’s present environment is detrimental to the child’s physical, mental, or emotional health and the harm likely to be caused by a change of environment is outweighed by the advantage of the change to the child, or

3. The court has found the other parent to be in contempt of court at least twice within three years because the parent failed to comply with the residential time provisions in the court ordered Parenting Plan, or 

4. the other parent has been convicted of custodial interference in the first or second degree.

If, instead of changing the primary residence of the child, you want to slightly increase in the amount of your residential time, you have to show that a substantial change has occurred in the circumstances of either parent or the child and that your proposed change to the residential schedule will not change the primary residence of the child. To seek this adjustment in the residential schedule, you must prove to the court that your proposed change to the residential schedule does not exceed 24 full days in a calendar year, your address has changed, or that you experienced an involuntary change in your work schedule that makes the residential schedule in the Parenting Plan impractical to follow and does not result in a schedule that exceeds 90 overnights per year in total.

During his thirty-nine years of practicing family law, William Buchanan has represented many clients seeking to modify or adjust the residential schedule in their Parenting Plans. Please call him to review your proposal to change the residential schedule.

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