High-conflict civil cases
When most people think of TalkingParents, they think of high-conflict civil cases involving children. TalkingParents is ideal for divorces, paternity actions, child custody/support modifications, or any other situation where co-parents are not getting along or communicating effectively. In these high-conflict scenarios, it can be useful to limit all communication between parties to TalkingParents. This page includes information and example order language to help with these situations. If the parties involved in your case or situation do not need such strict limitations on their interactions, please see our low-conflict information page.
It is not uncommon for high-conflict cases to include allegations of domestic violence or other inappropriate behavior. Limiting communication to our service guarantees a perfect record of all communication and interactions between parties and allows them to block all other forms of communication. Utilizing TalkingParents allows both parties to change their phone numbers, email addresses, and any other means of contact. Remember, parents do not need to know each other's contact information or physical locations to communicate through TalkingParents. If your case involves domestic violence, our pages dedicated to criminal cases and restraining orders may also be helpful.
Things to keep in mind
- While all communication and interaction can be limited to TalkingParents, exceptions can always be made for emergencies or other case-specific circumstances.
- If the parties in a case have a particular issue that is a common source of disagreement, you can address the matter in your motions, agreements, and orders by setting parameters for how to handle it through our service.
- Get creative. You can use the standard motion/order/agreement language and leave the rest up to the parties, or you can give them specific instructions on how and when to use TalkingParents. You can also give the parties some control over the loosening or tightening of restrictions or set limitations on if and when they can pursue future litigation.
- Use of TalkingParents can be requested through a free-standing motion, or you may incorporate it into any number of other motions.
- Don't forget to file a proposed order with your motions; you want to make it as easy as possible for the court to grant your motion.
- Use of our service can also be incorporated into any agreement between parties to be ratified by court order.
- While we do offer example motions and orders for download below, feel free to copy and paste the language into your own documents. You are welcome to copy it verbatim or simply use it as inspiration for your own creative motions, orders, and agreements.
- If you craft something of your own and think it could be useful to others, or especially helpful for certain situations, and you would like to share it with other members of the legal community, please send it to us. We can give you credit or share it as an anonymous submission. If you would like to write an article to go along with your example document(s), we can publish it on our website.
Example motions and orders
Use of TalkingParents can be requested through a free-standing motion, or you may incorporate it into any number of other motions. Use of our service can also be incorporated into any agreement between the parties to be ratified by court order. Remember, you can adjust our example motion and order language as needed.
Download examplesSee what professionals have to say
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Daniel Ryan That Family Law Guy
McKenzie PicaveTalkingParents takes a lot of the ‘heat’ out of the conflict we’re in the middle of. That obviously makes life a lot easier because the approach we take to family law is that our role is not to fight on behalf of one party or the other. We’re not there as bullies. Our role is to find an opportunity for these families to get on with their lives. So, this app helps us bring these parents to a place where we can do that.
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Sabra M. Janko Managing Attorney and Owner
Janko Family Law SolutionsI have also used Civil Communicator, and I’m not a big fan of it. It’s designed for high-conflict cases. The communication is very constrained, which I suppose is the whole point, but it sometimes makes it difficult to accomplish basic things. I think TalkingParents is a great, healthy medium because it helps keep communication civil in high-conflict cases, while also allowing people to communicate freely. So, if they dig themselves a hole, it’s on the record, and they have to live with it.
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Kenny Levine Therapist & Coach
Thrive Communication Skills LLCThe recorded calling is huge. I think it’s so important for co-parents to take advantage of that to monitor their interactions and help improve their behavior. I also highly suggest putting the child’s schedule directly into the app to help minimize the need for communication. Conflict requires interaction, so any way to decrease the volume of back-and-forth communication can be beneficial.