Indiana Divorce Mediation - Divorce and Family Law Mediation Rules Change

Beginning January 1, 2010, mediators can now be more helpful for parties and courts. Mediators can now assist the parties in drafting the settlement agreement, divorce decree and child support worksheets which need to be filed to make a divorce effective, or the settlement documents to resolve a paternity, custody or child support dispute. Prior the rule amendment, there was ethical 'grey area' regarding whether a mediator could draft the documents. Most mediators did not get involved in drafting the settlement documents that were to be filed with the court.

This rule change will also assist judges. With mediators creating and filing the documents, in theory, the documents will be in a format the judge will be able to review more efficiently. In cases with child-related issues there are often multiple documents that need to signed and filed. The mediators should be a better position than the parties to get the necessary documents filed.

The rule changes are available here. For a list of certified family law mediators go here.

In conjunction with the forms, child support calculator, and videos the Indiana Supreme Court has made available on its website, it is easier for unrepresented parties to resolve their disputes through mediation, rather than expensive litigation.

Indiana Child Support - New Child Support Calculator

Previous postings (here, here, here and here) have detailed the amendments to the Indiana Child Support Guidelines, which will be effective January 1, 2010. On January 1, 2010 the Supreme Court of Indiana will update its online child support calculator to incorporate the amendments. The online calculator will be found here, and, as always, is free.

Holiday Parenting Time - What Time Does Christmas Eve Start?

Believe it or not this is a real issue, especially this year. As detailed in a previous post, for 2009-2010 the Winter holidays are as follows:

If your child gets out of school on December 18th and goes back on January 4th, one interpretation of the Guidelines for the winter holidays in 2010 is as follows:
Thanksgiving Break - with custodial parent in 2009.
Winter School Break - with noncustodial parent from December 18th at 8 p.m. until December 24, then the custodial parent would have the child from December 24th until December 30th at 7 p.m., whereupon the noncustodial parent would have the child from December 30th at 7 p.m. through January 3rd at 7 p.m. However, the noncustodial parent would also have the child from noon until 9 p.m. on December 25th.

When this was first posted it seemed comprehensive enough. But since then, with a transfer date of December 24th, a popular question in my office has been - "when does christmas eve begin?" While there are many 'right' answers as to what time christmas eve begins...the real issue is what time the child must be transferred on December 24th. Of course the best way to handle this is to consider both parents schedules and preferences and come up with a reasonable time; however, in some cases having the parents jointly determine a reasonable time is like trying to nail jello to the wall. It is impossible.

Holiday parenting time disputes bring out the best or worst in parents, and if your divorce attorney is getting the call, it is likely the worst. So, if you do the math, by the hour the midpoint between December 18th at 8.pm. and December 30th at 7 p.m. is 7:30 p.m. on December 24th.