Temporary Order Hearings: Essential Steps in Family Law
What is a temporary order hearing? Hi, my name is Carl Birkhead. I’m a Tulsa family law attorney with Wirth Law Office in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I’ve been practicing family and criminal law for almost eight years now, and I want to help you make law easy by just talking a little bit about what a temporary order hearing is, specifically in instances of family law cases like paternity and divorce.
What Happens in a Temporary Order Hearing?
A temporary order hearing is something that gets set relatively early on after you file for a divorce or a paternity case. Here in Tulsa County, it gets set a little bit farther up than some other counties, though, because there are a couple of other steps that have to be completed first. There are a couple of videos that have to be watched, attestation forms need to be filed, you need to go to a parenting plan conference, and at that point, if there’s just not any chance of reaching some sort of an agreement for a temporary order, then we set it for a hearing.
So at a TOH, or a temporary orders hearing, we’re basically trying to figure out what court orders are going to be in effect while your case is pending. And again, we’re talking about divorce and paternity cases, so we’re talking about who’s going to have custody of the children while the case is pending, what’s visitation going to look like, what’s child support going to look like.
Why Temporary Orders Are Essential
In cases of divorce, we’re going to be talking about property split, debt split, whether there is any need or ability to pay for temporary alimony or temporary spousal support. These are the things that we’re going to be figuring out for the temporary orders hearing, just so you have something to go off of, and quite frankly, I mean, you’ve got an order to operate off of and some guidelines to follow while the case is pending.
This is important because these cases don’t wrap up very quickly. At a minimum, you have to wait 90 days for a divorce with minor children before it can be finalized. So that’s three months that you could be just left sitting with no operable orders to guide you and assist you on how to behave, who gets the children when, what’s visitation look like, who’s supposed to be paying for what. Those types of things are questions that definitely need to be answered while the case is going on.
Testing the Waters: Temporary Orders as a Test Drive
Otherwise, it’s just going to cause more fights between you and the person that you’re trying to either get a custody order with or trying to divorce. So I tell my clients this, it’s basically like you’re taking an order for a test drive. You’re setting up this next stage of your life, the stage where you’re not going to be together with your co-parent, and the TOH is just giving you an idea to test out what that’s going to look like.
Is joint custody feasible? Is a week-on-week off schedule going to work? How do you like how this works, and how this looks, and how this plays out in your day-to-day life? And it’s great because from the TOH, you can then go back to your attorney and say, hey, I like this, I don’t like this, can we tweak this? This hasn’t been working out for us. Give your attorney that feedback and that input, and that helps us figure out what’s going to be best for you as far as like getting it finalized, getting you a final paternity order, getting you a final divorce decree.
Finalizing Your Case: Make Informed Decisions
At the TOH stage, it gives you the ability to figure out what you do like, what you don’t like, what works, and what doesn’t work, so that you know what to push for in your final hearing without having to go and reinvent the wheel.
Initial Strategy Session Offer
If you have questions about this or are at the TOH stage and unsure of what to do, please don’t hesitate to give me a call. I’ll sit down with you, and we’ll discuss the pros and cons of your case to determine the best course of action. My name is Carl Birkhead, I’m a Tulsa divorce attorney with Wirth Law Office, and I want to help you make law easy. Call 918-879-1681 for a low-cost initial strategy session.
