family_law_case_work v1.0.0

name: "family_law_case_work" description: "Handle family law case paperwork with figures that hold up: financial disclosure checks, asset and debt schedules with every figure sourced, case chronologies, parenting plan drafts, and hearing prep packs. Use when working a divorce, legal separation, custody, parenting time, or child or spousal support case, or when a disclosure, schedule of assets and debts, income declaration, chronology, parenting plan, exhibit list, or hearing bundle needs building or checking."

Family Law Case Work

Purpose

Run the paperwork side of a family law case so every figure, date, and claim in the file can be traced to a document. The output is a disclosure pack that checks out, a schedule where no number stands alone, a short factual chronology, a parenting plan draft with no silent gaps, and a hearing pack a judge can follow.

This is process guidance, not legal advice. Strategy, characterisation of property, support positions, and what to file belong to the attorney of record or, for a self-represented party, to that party with independent legal advice. Family law is jurisdiction specific to a degree few fields match. Form names, deadlines, income definitions, and support formulas in this skill are worked examples, mostly from California, and they prove the checking method. They do not transfer to another state or country until the local rule is read and recorded in the file.

Workflow

1. Open the case with a jurisdiction block, before any drafting. Record the court, case type, case number if assigned, the local disclosure forms by their exact local names, the rule or order that sets each deadline, and the deadline dates. The spread between real rules shows why this comes first. California Courts Self Help sets disclosure sharing at within 60 days after filing the Petition for the petitioner and within 60 days after filing the Response for the respondent. Colorado Rule of Civil Procedure 16.2, as summarised by practitioners, sets mandatory disclosure at within 42 days after service of a petition or a post-decree motion involving financial issues. Same job, different clock. Never carry a deadline from one case into the next.
2. Take intake as a one page summary, not a narrative. Capture parties, children with ages, current living and care arrangements in practice, orders sought in the client words and then as an issue list, income and property at rough level flagged unverified, safety concerns, and any date already running. Run the conflicts and privilege check the firm requires and record that it was done. The worked case in references/worked-case.md shows the shape.
3. Collect disclosure against the check sheet, category by category. Work references/disclosure-check-sheet.md for each party and each round. California illustrates the core set: tax returns from the last 2 years, proof of income for the past 2 months, and documents showing what is owned and owed, including mortgage, bank, title, credit card, and retirement records (forms FL-140, FL-150, and FL-142 or FL-160 in that state). For every category that does not apply, get a signed negative note instead of leaving a blank. Blanks read as omissions later.
4. Build the schedule with the builder, and clear every error before the schedule leaves the desk. Enter each item in a CSV with kind (asset, debt, income, or expense), owner, value, source document, and source date, then run scripts/schedule_builder.py <input.csv>. The builder totals assets, debts, net position, monthly income, monthly expenses, and a per owner breakdown, and it exits with code 2 and a named error for any figure missing its source document or source date. Treat that exit code as a filing block. In the worked sample, 15 sourced rows total $558,900.75 in assets and $343,775.52 in debts, for a net of $215,125.23.
5. Cross-check the two sides against each other. Match joint debts across both schedules, confirm both parties used the same valuation date or disclose the difference on the schedule, and reconcile income on the declaration against pay stubs and the latest tax return, with any change explained in writing (new job, cut hours, seasonal work). List every mismatch that survives checking as a hearing issue. A mismatch found at the desk is a task. The same mismatch found by the other side is a credibility problem.
6. Do support as its own calculation, under the local guideline only. Record the guideline name, the worksheet or calculator used, each income input with its source, the time share input with its source, the result, and any deviation factor counsel intends to argue. California Family Code section 4055 gives one formula in full: CS = K[HN - (H%)(TN)], with HN the high earner net monthly disposable income, H% the high earner approximate time share, TN total net monthly disposable income, a K table in the section, and multipliers for more than one child (1.6 for two children). Other states use income shares tables, percentage of obligor income, or other models entirely. Never present one state formula as the general rule, and never feed gross schedule figures into a formula that calls for a defined net income term.
7. Write the chronology short, factual, and sourced. Use three columns: date, what happened, why it matters, plus an exhibit reference where a document backs the entry. Include agreed and positive events alongside problems, attempts to agree, missed or late exchanges, school and medical points, and changes in work, housing, or childcare. Leave out argument, characterisation, and name calling. If an exact date is unknown, write the month or say around, and do not sharpen it later without a source.
8. Draft the parenting plan against a fixed heading list, with open items left visibly open. A complete plan covers decision making for routine and major matters such as education, health care, and religion, information sharing and electronic access, the child legal residence for school, a residential schedule covering weekdays, weekends, holidays, birthdays, vacations, and summers, transportation and exchange with the safety of the parties considered, health and education provisions, how the parents communicate, a procedure for reviewing and adjusting the plan, and a method for resolving disputes. That list follows North Dakota Century Code section 14-09-30 as summarised by WomensLaw, and it matches the headings most courts expect even where the local list differs. Where the parties have not decided, leave a bracketed choice. A guessed term that reads as agreed is worse than a gap.
9. Test parenting proposals against the best interests factors the local court must weigh. Common factors in the state summaries collected by the Child Welfare Information Gateway include the child relationship with each parent, stability and continuity of home, school, and community, the physical and mental health of the parties, special needs and how each parent meets them, ties to siblings and extended family, the child preference where age and state law give it weight, and any history of domestic violence or substance abuse. Map each proposal to the factors it serves, with a document or chronology entry behind it. Do not argue a factor the file cannot support.
10. Assemble the hearing prep pack last, from the checked pieces. Order the bundle as the local court directs, paginate it, and index it. Include the motion or application, statements, the chronology, an issues list, the sourced schedule, the support worksheet, the draft parenting plan, and exhibits. Build the exhibit list with one row per exhibit: number, description, date or date range, and blank offered and admitted columns for use in the room. Prepare the copies the court notice requires for the judge and the other party instead of assuming a number. Finish with a one page crib for counsel: orders sought, the three facts behind each order with exhibit numbers, concessions already made, and open questions.
11. Screen for safety at every step, and escalate, do not improvise. If the intake, messages, or records show domestic violence, coercion, or a child safety risk, stop the routine workflow on that point and hand it to the attorney or the proper local service the same day. Use safe exchange arrangements in the plan, keep any protected address out of served documents where the local rules allow that, and never put a party in a joint session the file gives reason to avoid. This skill does not assess risk. It flags it and routes it.

Output Contract

• Jurisdiction block: court, case type, exact local form names, the rule or order behind each deadline with its source, and the deadline and service dates.
• Intake summary: one page covering parties, children, arrangements in practice, orders sought, unverified money snapshot, safety flags, and the conflicts check record.
• Disclosure check sheet: the completed sheet from references/disclosure-check-sheet.md per party per round, with open items named instead of ticked by assumption.
• Sourced schedule: the markdown and JSON output of scripts/schedule_builder.py, with zero errors, totals for assets, debts, net position, monthly income and expenses, and a per owner breakdown.
• Support worksheet note: guideline used, inputs with sources, time share with source, result, and deviation points reserved for counsel.
• Chronology: dated entries in date, event, why it matters form, each document backed entry tied to an exhibit.
• Parenting plan draft: all headings in step 8 covered, undecided points left as bracketed choices, safety of exchanges addressed.
• Hearing prep pack: paginated indexed bundle, exhibit list with offered and admitted columns, copy count taken from the court notice, and a one page hearing crib.

Operating Rules

• No figure without a source. If a value comes from memory, an old statement, or a client estimate, it goes on a to verify list, not on the schedule. The builder error list is the enforcement, use it on every round, including supplements.
• Disclosure covers separate and joint property alike at the listing stage. Whether an item is separate, community, marital, or non-marital is a later legal call for counsel. Omitting an item because a party thinks it is theirs alone is the classic disclosure failure, and courts in the California guidance can respond by setting aside orders, awarding the omitted property, or shifting fees. Do not soften that warning when a client wants to leave something off.
• Deadlines and duties continue after the first round. Many rules impose a duty to update disclosure when a material change happens before the case ends. Diarise the update duty from the local rule at intake, and record each supplemental round on its own check sheet.
• Keep the roles straight. Under California Business and Professions Code section 6450(b), a paralegal must not provide legal advice, represent a client in court, or select, explain, draft, or recommend a legal document for anyone other than the supervising attorney. Other states draw the same line in their own words. An agent or support worker using this skill drafts and checks for the decision maker, and routes advice questions to that person untouched.
• Originals stay originals. Work from copies, keep screenshots with the full thread and its date, and never edit, crop, or annotate the only copy of an exhibit. Note where each original is kept on the exhibit list working copy.
• Write every document as if the judge and the other party will read it, because they will. Plain factual wording in chronologies, statements, and schedules is not politeness, it is strategy that survives reading aloud in a hearing.
• Privacy is part of the work product. Financial disclosures carry account numbers, tax records, and children details. Share them only with the parties the rules require, use the redaction the local rules allow or require for filed copies, and never put a full account number in a schedule when the last four digits identify the account.