What Should I Ask an Attorney in My Parenting Time Consultation?

As the best child custody lawyers in Arizona we often get asked, "what should I ask an attorney in my parenting time consultation?" Hi, I'm Kevin Jensen with the Law Offices of Kevin Jensen. You're receiving this video because you have reached out to our office and scheduled an appointment to meet with one of our attorneys for a consultation. The consultation you've requested is specifically regarding modification of your current parenting plan. We understand that co-parenting with another parent can sometimes be stressful. We also understand that circumstances sometimes change that require going back to court and changing the plans that you currently have in place. That can be very stressful too.

In order to help us maximize our time together, I wanted to send you this video and have you considered some important questions that we're going to need to discuss when we meet. First of all, modification cases require that the person seeking modification demonstrate to the court that there's been some sort of substantial and ongoing change of circumstance. That can vary from case to case. But in cases involving a change of a parenting schedule, it's important that you be able to demonstrate to the court that there's been something that's changed in your life that necessitates changing around whatever schedule you've been following to something new.

So, first and foremost, I'm going to ask you to come prepared to discuss what that change is. As I said, that can vary from case to case. And it really is something that's up to the judge to determine whether that is sufficient enough to change the schedule. In some cases, it may be because a parent has moved further away from the other parent. It could be a parent has been arrested and gone to jail. I know that sounds kind of dramatic, but that's something that happens from time to time. Maybe a parent got a DUI. Or maybe it's a situation where one parent wants to move out of State. That change of circumstance will determine whether or not a judge is willing to even move forward with a modification.

Secondly, come prepared to discuss what new schedule you think the court should adopt and why. You always have to make sure that the court can consider parenting time for the other parents. So, if you're going to be asking the court to reduce the parenting time of the other parent, come prepared to discuss why you think that's appropriate and in the best interest of the children. If you're coming to talk about why you think that you need to increase your parenting time, once again, come prepared to discuss why that would be in the best interest of the children, and what specific schedule you want to adopt. We know that these issues can be stressful. We know that they're important to you and your children. The more information you can bring to us and the reasons for the changes that you're requesting, the better advice we can give you. Thank you once again for giving us the opportunity to meet with you. We look forward to meeting with you soon. And thank you.

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