DIVORCE AND CUSTODY CHANGES

Guardian Ad Litem Duties

When parents divorce or separate, they do not always agree on where their children should live. In these types of cases, the Judge can appoint someone to represent the children.  This person is usually an attorney. When the attorney is appointed to act in the best interests of the children, the attorney is called a Guardian ad Litem.

This law has been expanded to explain the duties of the Guardian ad Litem in more detail:

1. Conduct in-person interviews with the child and parents.
2. Visit the homes of the child and parents.
3. Interview anyone providing services to the child (school, doctor, counselor, etc.)
4. Obtain first-hand knowledge, if possible, of facts, circumstances and persons involved in the case.
5. Attend the hearings scheduled by the Court.

The Guardian ad Litem has the authority to look at and copy any records that are important to the case. They can also attend meetings with the child's doctors, counselors, teachers, etc.

Parenting Plans

In a custody case, either parent can request that the Court award them joint physical care. Joint physical care means that both parents provide the main home or residence for the child. The child actually has two houses where he or she lives. Often the child will split their time fairly evenly between the two homes, but this is not a requirement. Of course, it is important for parents to communicate and cooperate well with each other in these types of custody arrangements. That is why the law now says the Court can make the parents show the Judge a joint physical care plan. (The parents can do this together or each do one). The plan must include:

1. How they will make decisions affecting the child.
2. When the child will be with each parent or how the child's time will be divided between them.
3. How they will work together and cooperate on the child spending time with the other parent.
4. How they will pay for extra expenses not covered by child support (cost of music lessons, extra-curricular activities, camp, etc.).
5. What they will do to work out serious disagreements about their child.
6. Any other concerns or issues the Judge asks them to plan for.
   

The idea is for parents to think through ahead of time how they will raise their children together even though they are not still living together.

CHILD SUPPORT CHANGES

The law was clarified to make sure all children receive support until they graduate from high school. In the past, some support orders stopped when the child turned 18, even if they were still in high school. Now support must be paid until after age 18 if the child is a full time high school student (or working on his or her GED) and is expected to finish school before turning 19.

Suspension of Child Support

Under certain conditions parents can stop or suspend a support obligation. For example, this can happen when the children change homes and start living with the parent who is paying support. In the past, all the children covered by the child support order had to move from one home to the other. Because of a recent change in the law, it is possible to suspend some portion of the child support if only one child moves from one home to the other.  If one of the three children move in with dad, for example, dad will have to pay less in child support. He will only pay for two children instead of three.

However, the child support order being changed must include what the law calls a "step change."  This means the order must already say how much is owed for three children, two children or one child.

It is also important to remember that both parents must be willing to have the order changed. The process is started by contacting the Child Support Recovery Unit. The CSRU customer service number is 1-888-229-9223. Additional information and forms are available on the Iowa Child Support website: https://childsupport.dhs.state.ia.us/welcome.asp

Child Support Contempt Actions

Sometimes a person is ordered to pay support in more than one case (they have multiple orders). If they fall behind in any or all of them, CSRU may file a contempt action in one or more of the cases. The law now allows CSRU to bring just one contempt action and combine all the cases into one. This way they do not have to file several different contempts. The person obligated to pay support can object to this, but the Court can still order it in the interests of justice.

The one action will be filed in the county where the person who has to pay support lives. The Judge in that county can make decisions in all the cases at one time. CSRU must be sure and notify the Clerk of Court in each county where a case is located.

This combining of cases may help some obligors because all their orders are being looked at at the same time. The Court can then have better information about the obligor's ability to pay. Agreements to pay may also be easier to negotiate because they should take into consideration everything that the person owing support has to pay.

Getting Notices from CSRU

In the past, most important papers are served "by personal service."  This means that a sheriff would take the papers to the person who must receive them. The law was changed so that CSRU can now send papers in the mail. They do not have to have a sheriff bring the papers to anyone's home, although they still can use this method if they want.

When using this method, however, CSRU must make sure they send the notice by certified mail and someone must sign for the papers. The return acknowledgment has to be filed with the Clerk of Court to prove service was proper.

Many different notices can now be sent this way. These include: Petitions, Contempt papers and Notices about License Sanctions.

In certain cases, CSRU does not have to send a notice at all. The law was changed to state that the fact the law is there, is "sufficient notice of implementation. . . without any further notice."