The Parenting Coordinator Act Allows the Appointment of a Parenting Coordinator in Certain Custody Cases
Video Transcribed: What is the most underutilized tool in family law courts in Oklahoma? I’m Tulsa attorney, James Wirth, I’m about to tell you a tool that you might be able to use in your custody case. All right. So what is that tool?
It’s the parenting coordinator in Oklahoma has a specific act under its statutes. 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.
So what is it? Well, a parenting coordinator is a third party, a neutral party, that can be appointed by the court that helps the party to come to agreements and work together in enforcing the court’s orders, but also to handle disputes that the parties come up with that maybe would take too long or be too expensive to take to the court.
So if the parties are having a dispute regarding custody exchange times, somebody showing up late, who’s going to pay for this extracurricular, who gets to decide this, what is the order provide, all of these small types of things they would be better handled by a parenting coordinator that can handle them quickly.
So let’s say we’ve got an issue coming up where the court order says we got visitation next week, but the child’s got an extracurricular activity that the other parent has to take the child to that conflicts with that. Well, how do you handle that?
If we’ve got two parents that can work together, they may be able to work together on their own, but if the parties are not able to work together, that’s something that has to be decided quickly and it would take too long and too costly to take that to and wait for a judicial decision through the court process.
But if you already have a court appointed parenting coordinator, couple emails back and forth with that person, you may have a quick decision that allow makeup visitation at another time.
So utilizing that can be a great way to settle quick disputes and can help the parties get along after the court case is even done if you hire the right parenting coordinator.
I’ve got a few more videos that I’m going to post after this one that talk about a lot of issues specific to parenting coordinators, but if you’ve got a custody case going on in Oklahoma parenting coordinator, certainly something that you should consider and if you’ve got questions about that particular to your case, you should talk to an attorney. For more information on that you go to makelaweasy.com.
