Filing FL-300 Request For Order : Can Order Be Retroactive To Date Of Filing
Hi, Tim Blankenship here with divorce661.com and in this video, we’re going to talk about the retroactivity of filing a motion with the court. So, let’s say you want to establish a new order and you’re in agreement with your spouse, you can simply draft what’s called a stipulation order.
It’s filed with the court and it’ll modify or make new orders and it’ll even supersede previous orders if you guys agree to that, those terms and that’s generally what we have our clients do and they’ll say Tim, we want to change something, I’ll say as long as you guys are in agreement it’s just a matter of putting together an agreement to modify that.
In the alternative sometimes, parities aren’t in agreement so, let’s say one spouse, say a husband wants to modify an order, spouse doesn’t want to, but he wants to 1st try and negotiate with her to do so. And what can happen is, in this particular case we had a stipulation that we drafted, he was hopeful that she would sign it and for 30 days he was trying to work with her to get her to agree you know, they were trying to talk about it, discuss it, which is all fine and dandy except for the fact that they were trying to modify spouse support and child support.
He was trying to reduce it and she was kind of delaying the discussion on that and a whole nother 30 days went by so, he’s still stuck paying the current order until it’s been modified. So, what happen was later we did file, 30 days later we did file a motion with the court, but he lost that 30 days in negotiations. So, what we generally recommend if you are in 100 percent that you’re going to end up in an agreement, regarding the stipulation and order is to file a motion at the exact same time.
So, let’s say today is September 5th and let’s say we file the motion today September 5th and then we also do the stipulation and in the same scenario, husband’s trying to negotiate with the spouse about signing the stipulation. Let’s say 30 days goes by, she doesn’t sign it well then, we just serve the RFO, the request for order and the date of retroactivity, the date that the order will be made back to will be September 5th, so no time is lost.
So, I hope you can see what I’m trying to show here, if you’re going to be in agreement, just do the stipulation, it’s easier, it’s cheaper, it’s faster. If you’re not sure if the other party will file or will sign the stipulation or agreement then file your motion, establish the court date, establish your retroactive date and take as much time as you need in negotiating that stipulation and order and if then that just falls through and there’s no agreement you still have your hearing on calendar and you still have your retroactive date of September 5th. Tim Blankenship, divorce661.com. Hope you’re having a great day, take care and thanks for watching.
