Best Interest of the Children: The Priority in Family Law
Video Transcribed: Can you do a dismissal with prejudice in Oklahoma Family Law Court? I’m Tulsa Attorney James Wirth. And that is a question that somebody submitted.
So first off, I guess we’ve got to talk about dismissals being with or without prejudice. So if it’s a dismissal with prejudice, with prejudice to refiling, meaning that it’s dismissed and they can’t simply file that thing again. Whereas if it’s dismissal without prejudice, then we’ve got what’s called the saving statute. It means that it can be refiled within a year and not violate the statute of limitations. So you can refile that for the same thing based on the same facts requesting the same stuff as long as it’s refiled within a year if it was dismissed without prejudice.
So we’re talking about prejudice here. Can you do a dismissal with prejudice in a family law court? And the answer is that you can. However, it may not be as strong as you want it to be. If we’re talking about perhaps a custody issue, and you file a motion to modify, and ultimately you dismiss that with prejudice. That doesn’t prevent you from ever filing another motion to modify custody again. However, it may prevent you from filing a motion to modify or change custody based on those facts that you alleged before because that was dismissed with prejudice. That is done.
However, these things evolve over time, and new events occur. So it’s very likely if you’re having issues and you dismiss something and then the issues continue, you can file it based on the things that have occurred since that time and still file a motion to modify custody.
In a family law court, if we’re dealing with kids, it’s all about the best interest of the children. So you’ll find that they’re not as strict on the rules in a family law court as they are in regular civil court, and rather than the exact letter of the law, they’re focused on the main spirit of the law in a family law court, which is the best interest of the children.
So can you do a dismissal with prejudice in a family law court? Yes, you can, and it can preclude certain things, but it may not be as strong as you want it to be. But it’s going to depend on your specific circumstances. So if you’re dealing with this scenario, you’re going to want to talk to an attorney privately, confidentially, to get legal advice specific to your circumstances. To get that scheduled with a family law lawyer in Oklahoma at my office, you can go online to makelaweasy.com.
