First, what is a request for order. A request for order is the name of a court form that you use when you want to ask the court to make orders, whether it be during your divorce or after it is finished.
I have spoke a lot about these request for orders and we probably handle 10 or so request for orders a month for people who need to get into court for new or modified court orders.
For the purpose of this article, I wanted to address the actual “how to” as far as formatting of your declaration which is the written narrative of what and more importantly, why you are asking for what you want.
I have become very skilled in writing request for orders for people and we have great track record for getting our clients what they want. It is all about how you write it.
My background in writing great declarations for request for orders comes from my almost 15 years as a Police Officer. When I was a cop I had to write 5 to 10 police reports a day which all have to tell a story and follow certain criteria and most importantly the person I arrested had to be shown to be guilty. This means we had to prove in the report that the person did all the things it takes to make them guilty of the crime.
Divorce and family law is the same way. Each law or rule has elements that have to be meet in order for it to work.
Before I get to far into this, I want to advise you on how to structure this and then will give an example from a previous article I wrote so you have a better understanding of what I am talking about.
The first thing you need to do is complete the actual Request For Order Application form FL-300. Think of this as a cover pages (4 pages) which is a court form that has a series of check boxes and places for certain information.
Following the Request For Order Application, you will have to draft a written declaration. This part is very important because this is your chance to tell the court what and why you want what you want and why the court should agree with you.
So as far as formatting this is what i will tell you. Be clear and concise. And make sure to never put in any drama into the declaration. Shorter is better and you should include some case law or rules or codes if you have any to support your requests.
I don’t recommend you write your own declarations. I would suggest you hire us to prepare, file and serve your Request For Order and declaration. The difference between getting what you want and not is in how the declaration is written.
We can help you with your Request for Order and we do a lot of them. Give me a call and we can discuss helping you.
