Creative order ideas for civil cases

Every co-parenting relationship is different and the standard high-conflict or low-conflict TalkingParents order may not always be the right fit. Sometimes co-parents need a little more guidance regarding how they must utilize our service, and creative measures are needed to ensure the parties don’t end up back in court litigating a dispute that could have been avoided or resolved with better communication.

For high-conflict situations where the parties are restricted to communicating only through TalkingParents, additional clauses with specific requirements may be helpful. For low-conflict situations where the parties are permitted to continue communicating outside of our service, it is especially important to clearly document when use of TalkingParents is required by either party.

If the other party is in agreement, you could file a stipulated motion and order. You could also include the requirement to use TalkingParents, and any additional terms, in any agreement between the parties that is to be ratified by court order, like a marital settlement agreement. If the other party is not in agreement, then don’t forget to include a proposed order with your motion.

Things to keep in mind

• Remember that a request to utilize TalkingParents can be filed as a stand-alone motion or incorporated into just about any other preliminary motion. If doing so would be appropriate in your court, then be sure to include a proposed order with the motion so it is easy for the court to go ahead and grant it.
• If the parties are in agreement regarding the use of TalkingParents, you can file a stipulated motion with order or you can add the relevant language to any agreement between parties, like a marital settlement agreement.
• If the parties are in agreement regarding the use of TalkingParents, but disagree regarding some additional terms, then it may be possible to file a partially stipulated motion and let the court determine what parameters to place on the use of TalkingParents.
• Require both parents to check their TalkingParents account at least once per 24-hour period regardless of whether they receive any notifications from our service. This is to ensure neither parent misses an important message or other event. You can also require each parent to view any new message or other new activity within 24 hours.
• Create a prerequisite for any future litigation whereby any future legal action related the to child(ren) must include proof that the matter at issue was addressed through TalkingParents in a timely manner from when it first arose, and that an attempt was made by the filing party to resolve the matter or propose a solution. If the parents are permitted to communicate outside of TalkingParents, and the dispute arose and an impasse was reached via other means of communication or in person, then the filing party must show they documented the dispute in a message posted by their TalkingParents account in a timely manner from when the dispute arose. Either party may request a hearing on this matter and if the court determines that the filing party did not comply with this provision then the matter will be dismissed for lack of standing by the court in favor of the responding party.