When a court of law passes a ruling on divorce or any other family law issue, it expects both parties to follow through with its resolutions. However, circumstances may force divorced couples to find ways of changing the terms. The good news is that you have a legal avenue to modify your divorce agreement and change issues such as child support, custody arrangements, and alimony.
In Philadelphia, the only way to change the finalized and approved divorce judgment is through a post-judgment motion in a court with jurisdiction. A post-judgment modification attorney can help challenge the original settlement or show a change in circumstances that warrants the modification. Let’s explore all there is to know about a post-judgment modification in Philadelphia.
Contesting the Original Divorce Court Judgment
During a Philadelphia divorce ruling on custody, alimony, and child support, both parties get an opportunity to present their case. That’s why the court intends a divorce order to be a final decree. However, your post-judgment modification attorney can challenge the outcome by filing a modification motion.
It’s wise to remember that this process isn’t in place to reargue your case. The divorce judge misapplied the law during the court proceedings. You might have to meet some legal grounds to challenge the court’s decision:
- The judge abused their discretion and prevented one party from having a fair hearing, which caused an irregularity in the proceedings.
- You and your attorney came across new evidence, which you couldn’t have reasonably discovered before the initial divorce proceedings.
- The evidence brought forth in court wasn’t sufficient to legally support the ruling.
- You were involved in an accident that affected the case. However, you should prove you couldn’t prevent it even with reasonable care.
If any of the above scenarios materially affect the outcome of the divorce settlement, your attorney can file a motion for a new trial. When we talk of materially affected, we mean that they directly affected the case’s outcome, which may have been different if any of the above scenarios hadn’t played out. If the motion succeeds, the court will rehear evidence on all issues in question from both parties.
While you may feel there was an error during the original ruling, the court will not always grant a new trial. For instance, the motion will likely be denied if any of the issues above affected you and your former spouse equally or had no significant impact on the settlement outcome. Also, there’s a possibility that the new hearing may find the initial ruling proper, even with the omissions or errors, and hold it as the final decree.
Post-judgment Modification Due to Changes in Lifestyle
Life is dynamic, and your situation down the road may change significantly. And even if your situation remains the same, your former partner’s lifestyle may change. As such, you may find it hard to keep up with the final divorce settlement resolutions.
Pennsylvania’s law allows you to file for a modification motion if you experience a change in circumstances since you entered a divorce settlement. If events affect your life, that of your former spouse or even the kids, you can find reprieve through a post-judgment modification. Your family law attorney can provide evidence of significant financial, mental, or physical changes that make it hard to follow a standing court order.
You may qualify for a post-judgment modification if:
- Your child has reached the legal age (18 years) and will not be furthering their education level by attending college. That means you might not have to continue with child support payments.
- Your child reaches adulthood in the eyes of the law, but they’re still attending college, so you need the continuation of child support. The motion can request a change to the child support payment period initially agreed upon or ruled on by the family court.
- You aren’t receiving adequate support for yourself and the kids, and the payments aren’t coming on time or consistently. Here, you can seek modification and enforcement concurrently.
- Your child has significant or continuing medical expenses after sustaining life-threatening injuries. As your child’s primary custodian, the situation may warrant a modification in the child support payments you receive.
- Your child starts living with guardians or someone other than the primary custodial parent. If you’re paying child support, you can request a modification.
- You have experienced a disability or are suffering from an illness. You can seek to modify divorce settlement terms since you no longer have the ability to finance child support and alimony requirements or follow through with the child custody arrangements.
- Your former spouse (the one receiving alimony) is cohabiting with a different partner or has remarried. Your family law attorney can help you file a motion to terminate the payment of spousal support as their financial situation may have improved due to their new partner’s paycheck.
- Your former partner subjected your children to verbal, physical, or mental abuse. Divorce is naturally a traumatic and disruptive experience for the kids; therefore, the court will often side with the party that makes the children comfortable. You can file a modification in the child custody terms if you learn that your children undergo cruel and unsatisfactory parenting at the hands of your former spouse.
- Like the previous point, the court will likely take your side if your former spouse has a mental illness. That’s because they may not provide the required standard care for the children to thrive.
- There’s a significant shift in your children’s schedule, for instance, sports or school. You can seek to modify the child custody terms to better suit the kids’ current development situation.
- You or your former spouse have recently encountered a substantial change in your financial situation, such as a promotion, demotion, or the award of a large inheritance. Such scenarios deserve a modification in child support and alimony terms.
- You have retired, lost your job, or experienced a significant loss of income and ability to meet financial obligations. A post-judgment modification towards alimony and child support payments may come in handy.
- Your former spouse is facing criminal charges. Criminal charges usually mandate a review of the custody agreements to ascertain that the children will not suffer any harm by being in contact with the parent who’s facing criminal charges. Here, you may seek a modification to sole custody if the previous arrangement was joint custody.
- You and your former partner reconcile and start living together. Although you’re now on good terms, it wouldn’t hurt to be on the same page legally to avoid any trouble if something goes wrong.
What Does a Post-judgment Modification Affect?
Post-judgment modification following a divorce usually covers three aspects; child custody and visitation, child support, and alimony. Here’s more into the subject.
Child Custody and Visitation
Child custody legally means the party that cares for and controls the children after a divorce or separation. Usually, children will live with the custody parent most of the time or all the time. The parent without custody may have access or rights to visit with the children at set times.
While the court can determine who gets control, a family law attorney in Philadelphia can help you file child custody or visitation modifications. Custody can either be joint, split, sole, or shared. You can request to change the existing arrangements if significant changes affect the children’s lives.
Remember that you must show that modifying custody and visitation arrangements will be in the kids’ best interest. For example, you might want to request visitation changes if you’re moving to a new physical location far from where the child resides due to work, which will contribute to the child support payments. As for custody modifications, you may seek a change from joint to sole custody if the other parent mistreats the children.
Child Support
A child support payment is the compulsory amount of money paid by the noncustodial parent to the parent awarded primary custody. It contributes to the children’s basic expenses, including clothing, food, healthcare, shelter, and education. You can file for child support modification to request a reduction of the amount you’re paying towards child support or an increase in the money you’re receiving.
However, your motion can only succeed after demonstrating to the family court that life changes have significantly impacted your capabilities to pay the child support or your ability to survive on the previous payments. It’s also vital to note that the modifications must be in the child’s best interests.
Alimony/Spousal Support
This financial support refers to the money a family court orders one divorcing party to pay their former spouse after a divorce or separation. However, alimony in Pennsylvania is subject to modification by any spouse. They must demonstrate a material change in their finances or that of their former partner to succeed with their motion.
For instance, you may seek to stop alimony payments if the supported spouse remarries or starts cohabiting with another person. Also, spousal support can reduce if the paying spouse loses their income or the receiving spouse gets a huge raise at work.
Get the Help of Our Post-judgment Modification Attorney
As your situation changes long after your divorce, requesting your custody, alimony, and support order follow suit is a fair ask. It’s best to seek the help of a family law attorney apprised with such matters to have an easy time with the entire process. Contact Cooper Family Law whenever you need a post-judgment modification attorney in Pennsylvania — we’ll begin working on your case immediately.
