Family Law
What is Separate Property in an Oklahoma Divorce?
Separate property is property that you own that is not marital property. According to Tulsa Divorce Attorney James Wirth, anything that isn't marital, and it is yours, not your spouse's, it is considered separate property. Read more »What Is the Waiting Period to Get Divorced if There Are No Children Involved?
Make sure you have your documents together for your petition and when you file that petition with the court. If there are no minor children, it's just 10 days that is when that timeframe starts. Read more »What Are the Grounds for Divorce in Oklahoma?
Tulsa family attorney James Wirth, answers "What are the various grounds for divorce in Oklahoma?" He explains how Oklahoma is like most States now, a no-fault divorce state, meaning that you don't have to allege any fault to file for divorce. In addition, he mentions all of the reasons you could file for divorce in Oklahoma. Read more »How Do You Transfer a Family Law Case to Another County in Oklahoma?
If a Case Is Not Filed in the Appropriate County Based on Where You've Got Jurisdiction and Proper Venue, Then You'd File a Motion to Dismiss, Once That's Granted, You Could File in Another Count. Read more »How Do You Look Up Family Law Cases in Oklahoma?
Well, in Oklahoma, it's actually not too difficult. And Oklahoma was one of the first, if not the first, states to have a comprehensive online docket sheets. So if you're looking for your case, historically, we've had a bifurcated method. We've had two different databases for those. We've had OSCN.net, the Oklahoma Supreme Court Network, that handled the bigger counties, Tulsa County, Oklahoma County, some of the other counties, but maybe 10, 15, 20 of the counties. And then the remainder of the counties, the smaller counties, were on ODCR.com. And those are still both active, but OSCN is now more comprehensive and it has those other counties as well. So you can go to OSCN.net, you can put in some search information for the county, the parties names, the case names, and you can bring up those docket sheets. And for more recent filings, you can actually download those filings. Read more »Are Oklahoma Family Law Cases Public Record?
Are Oklahoma family law cases public record? I'm Tulsa attorney, James Wirth, and I'm answering frequently asked questions. And that's the question I've got here is are Oklahoma family law cases, Oklahoma divorce, Oklahoma guardianships, Oklahoma protective orders, Oklahoma custody, Oklahoma paternity, all of those things, are they public record? And the answer is for the most part, yes. Adoptions sealed, not public. Guardianship, sealed, not public. Deprived child action, sealed, not public. Read more »What is the Waiting Period for a Divorce with Children in Oklahoma?
How long must we wait to get divorced if there's minor children involved in the marriage? Oklahoma does have timeframes that you must wait. If there's no minor children, it's only 10 days. But if there are kids involved, then it is a 90-day waiting period. And that 90 days begins when the petition is filed with the court. Read more »How Do I Get Full Custody of My Child in Oklahoma?
How do I get full custody? Well, you got to ask for it. You got to file for it and then you got to go to court and either get agreement, or get a judge to decide that that's what's in the best interest of the child, but it depends a little bit on where you start off. So if you are married, then you and your spouse ha defacto kind of have joint custody. You don't have any legal document. You don't have any legal determination, but neither one of you has superior rights to the other. So if you want those superior rights, you need to file with the court. And if you file the divorce action requested for custody, or if you don't want a divorce, you can file a legal separation requesting for custody. Read more »Do I Have to let the Father See My Child (Oklahoma Law)?
In Oklahoma do I have to allow the father to see my child, or our child? And that answer to that depends. What are the circumstances? If there is a court order in place, then you've got to file that court order unless you believe doing so would put the child in eminent danger of irreparable harm, in which case you need to file an emergency to get that changed. You've got a duty to protect the child, but you also have a duty to follow a court order. Read more »How Long Do You Have to Wait to Get Remarried in Oklahoma?
Under Oklahoma law, you have to wait at least six months to remarry after your Oklahoma divorce decree is finalized. So what the law says is if you get married within that six month period, so six months has not passed yet, then there's two issues. One, the new marriage is going to be voidable. The party could file, or you could file to have it annulled because it is a voidable marriage. Now that issue cures itself, if you continue to act as though you're in the marriage and reside together, once that six month waiting period has passed, then that voidable marriage becomes a legit marriage after that six months. Read more »What Are the Alimony Laws in Oklahoma?
Tulsa Attorney James Wirth answers what are Oklahoma's alimony laws or spousal support laws? Well, yes, spousal support, alimony, it is a thing in Oklahoma, and the law does not give a lot of rules on it. So, judges have wide discretion in determining what is appropriate. The court's going to look at what is equitable, what is fair in determining what is appropriate for spousal support, but typical things that we look at is we've got one party that has much better ability to pay bills and one party that is in need, so we're going to look at the finances of each party and determine. Obviously, we have to have a marriage first. In those scenarios, we look at the income of the party. If you've got one party with no income and lots of expenses and is used to a certain level of living, but doesn't have the ability to earn what it takes to get there, that is a party that has a need for spouse support or alimony. That's one of the requirements. The other part is we're going to look at the other side. What is that party's income? What is that party's expenses? After their expenses are paid, do they have money left over? If so, then they've got the ability to pay. We've got need and then we've got ability to pay. Then lastly, we want to show that that need is tied to the marriage. That person that is need, are they in need, because they gave up their career to take care of the kids? Are they in need, because they gave up a career, or a job, or schooling in order to take care of the husband and to have more household duties? If so, then that need is going to tie it to the marriage. Read more »Can You Relinquish Custody of a Biological Child in Oklahoma?
If we're talking about relinquishing custody, then certainly that is something that you could do. You could give the other parent custody just by signing over custody, and then maybe you could request visitation rights, or maybe you don't even request visitation rights. And then that person would have custody, but it does not terminate your parental rights. Same thing with a third party. If the other parent is not available to step in or the other parent is unfit and you're wanting to relinquish, then you could give up guardianship to a third party and say right now it's in the best interest of my child for somebody else to care for that person. Get a guardianship in place, and guardianship's are temporary by nature. So they're indefinite and they stay in effect until they're terminated, but you could file at any time to terminate that and get your custody back. So that deals with relinquishing or giving up custody. But most of the time when we talk about relinquishment we're not dealing with just custody, we're dealing with parental rights, and that's different. Read more »How Much Does It Cost to Go to Court for Child Custody in Oklahoma?
It depends on how much work goes into it because these attorneys are billing hourly, and there could be additional costs. If you have to do a deposition, you got to pay a court reporter, if you need more evidence, you need a PI, you need a private investigator helping out. If you go to mediation, which mediation in Tulsa County is required before you get a trial date, you've got to pay the mediator's fee. If you need a custody evaluation, then you need to pay a custody evaluator. If you need to appraise the value of a house, then you need an appraiser to handle that for you. You might need a parenting coordinator. You might need a guardian ad litem. There's all kinds of different costs could go into that in addition to the filing fee and the attorney fee. Depending on how litigated it is, the cost can vary as far as the total cost based on the total number of hours that the attorney puts into the case. Read more »Tips for Utilizing a Parenting Coordinator in Oklahoma
Statements made to a Parenting Coordinator are not confidential. This is not an attorney client relationship that you have. So anything you tell the Parenting Coordinator, you better expect that it could be made in a report that's published in the court file which could be open to the general public. So that's got to be known. Read more »Where to Get an Order Appointing Parenting Coordinator Form for Oklahoma?
Most people may not know that if they haven't been in litigation, judges generally do not draft their own orders. Usually the parties are ordered to come up with the orders based on the judge's decision. So where do you get an order appointing? For the most part, the court just doesn't have standard forms ready to go. But in Tulsa County at the website for the Tulsa County District Court, there actually is a form available and I've got a copy of that. I'll make a link to it in this article, and it is a pretty detailed order appointing a parenting coordinator. So if you want a parenting coordinator appointed, this is a good place to start and either use this form or use a lot of ideas from this form. Read more »Examples of Issues to Bring to a Parenting Coordinator
If you've got an order in place that says that the visitation exchange is supposed to occur at a particular location, but now it doesn't make sense to do it there. And that could be either because that location is closed down and it's no longer available for the public to use, or it could be because one of the parties has moved not far enough to be a relocation, but far enough to where the old spot is no longer a halfway point. So if you're in that scenario, you want to talk to the other parent, see if an agreement can be reached on a new place. Read more »How to Pick an Oklahoma Parenting Coordinator for Your Custody Case
There are essentially two types of people that can be appointed as parenting coordinators, an attorney with experience in family law, and a mental health professional that either through education and mediation training, or through licensing, is eligible to be a parenting coordinator. Read more »Who Can Be a Parenting Coordinator in Oklahoma?
Oklahoma statutes, they define specifically, in Oklahoma Parenting Coordinator Act, who can be a Parenting Coordinator and they fall within essentially two categories, a licensed Oklahoma attorney with experience in Family Law could be a Parenting Coordinator and a professional in mental health can be a Parenting Coordinator. Read more »What is a Parenting Coordinator in Oklahoma?
If both parties are in agreement for the appointment, then the court can go along with that. However, if one party is in disagreement, there's certain standards that have to be met. Either party can make the request for the court appointed parenting coordinator, or the judge can sua sponte. Meaning on the court's own motion, make the request for a parenting coordinator. Read more »The Most Underutilized Tool to Save Time & Money in Your Oklahoma Custody Case
The Parenting Coordinator Act that allows the appointment of a parenting coordinator in certain custody and family law cases. It's generally a good idea to get one appointed if you can, because what are the main complaints that people say about the family law courts in Oklahoma and elsewhere? Takes too long and it's too expensive. Well, for many issues, having a parenting coordinator involved can help get around those issues because it can be a cheaper way to get resolution on small issues and it's definitely a faster way to get resolution on small issues. Read more »How to Enforce Child Support in Oklahoma through a Passport Hold
If you've got a child support obligation that is owed to you and it is past due, there's numerous different avenues to try to collect it. You could try to garnish wages, levy bank accounts. You can put a hold on state issued driver's licenses. You can do a contempt citation. You can try to intercept taxes. Read more »How to Get a Modification Through your Ex's Tax Return and Paystubs Every Year
If their income has gone up a lot, it may maybe worthwhile to do so. If your income has gone down, you're going to know it, but you're not going to know if theirs goes up unless you do this on a regular basis. So, if you need help doing that, or have a child support question, or want to file for a modification, talk to an attorney, you can talk to somebody at my office by going to makelaweasy.com. Read more »One Thing to Check on Your Phone when Starting a Family Law Case
First thing when you're starting your family law case, pull up your phone, see what you have your ex in your phone as, and change that name to something appropriate and descriptive. And that way, when you're printing off screenshots of all those text messages, it's going to be something that I can present to a court and that I'm not going to be embarrassed to provide and not going to be something that undermines your case and makes you look petty. Read more »3 Most Common Destination Weddings Seen by Oklahoma Divorce Attorneys
If you're a divorce attorney, you need to file a divorce petition, which we do frequently, one of the things we have to list on there is the county of the marriage. So we get to see who's having destination weddings. And it's interesting to see what type of destination weddings come into our office and what we file. So what do you think the most common destination is? I'm about to tell you Read more »Does a Protective Order Take My Gun Rights Away In Oklahoma?
Tulsa Attorney James Wirth explains how a protective order can take away your gun rights. If that protective order is granted, your Second Amendment rights are gone at that moment that that protective order is served upon you. The sheriff will probably take those guns out of your household, or you'll have to give those to a third party because it will be illegal for you to possess them while the protective order is in place, and that's under federal law. Read more »
