Understanding Pre-Court Orders in Family Law Cases
Family law judge keeps making orders before the court date. What do I do? I’m Tulsa family law attorney James Wirth. That’s the question that we have. It sounds like we’ve got somebody in a family law court in the state of Oklahoma going through a proceeding. We don’t know whether it’s a divorce proceeding, paternity proceeding, or even if it’s a potential guardianship or some other proceeding, but it sounds like it’s probably a divorce or paternity proceeding.
They’ve got a court date set, and they feel that the judge keeps making orders before that court date and wants to know what they should do under those circumstances. So first off, there are a lot of different things that could be going on here. There are a lot of different types of family law cases, a lot of different stages of family law cases, and a lot of different relief that somebody could be requesting that’s being granted, and without knowing what category it falls into, we don’t know exactly what we need to do.
Legal Framework and Motion Procedures
So the best advice to you is to get with an attorney who can look at your specific circumstances, but I do have some general information I can provide. Under Oklahoma statute, there are district court rules. You can find them on OSCN.net, and you find the Oklahoma statutes, and it’s in Title 12, and then under Rule 4, Motions.
It has a list of different motions that say when you file this type of motion, you need to include a brief and authority—I’m sorry, generally, when you file a motion, you need to include a brief of why you’re entitled to it and authority, but for this list, you’re not required to. And then for that list there, generally, you don’t have to necessarily file a responsive pleading. These types of things that are on this list we see commonly are granted or denied without a hearing.
Understanding Temporary Orders and Appeals
That’s a motion for an extension of time, a motion to continue a hearing pretrial, a motion to amend pleadings, a motion to point to guardian ad litem, a motion for physical or mental examination, a motion to add or substitute parties, a motion to enter or vacate default judgments, motion to confirm sales, motion to stay proceedings, motion to shorten a prescribed period, motion for scheduling conferences. So all of those types of one, it’s normal for the court to grant those without a brief, without authority, without a hearing.
However, if we go further down in that same Rule 4, we can go down to Subsection H, it says this, motions may be decided by the court without a hearing, and where this is done, the court shall notify the parties of its ruling in writing by mail or email. So, it is not required to have a hearing on every type of motion, and how you resolve that depends on what type of motion it is.
Next Steps and Legal Consultation
So what you could do is you could request a rehearing on it, even though there was never a hearing, the fact that the court decided it without a hearing, you can file a motion for new trial motion for rehearing to get it before that judge. If you want to do that, you want to do it within 10 days, get it set on that court’s docket, and allow it to be heard.
Depending on what it is, it may be an appealable order. So it may be something that you can make sure that there’s proper documentation on the court’s ruling, final order, and journal entry has been entered, and if it’s a final order like that, then you may be able to appeal it to a higher court, such as the Oklahoma Supreme Court or the Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals. But without knowing exactly what you’re dealing with, it’s tough to say, but a lot of times if we’re talking about family law, divorce cases, these could be temporary orders, and there’s not a lot of oversight as far as appealing those to a higher court.
Low-Cost Initial Strategy Session
If you’re going through this scenario, general information is great, but it doesn’t beat talking to an attorney privately and confidentially so you can receive legal advice, and strategic planning for what to do in your divorce or paternity case. To talk to an attorney at my office and get that scheduled, you can go online to MakeLawEasy.com or call us at 918-879-1681.
