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Attorneys Marc Lopez and Joni Sedberry recently spoke about how coronavirus closures are affecting family law cases and other related disputes. What follows is a lightly edited transcript of their conversation.

Marc Lopez
Hi, this is Marc Lopez. I’m here with my good friend, Family Law Attorney Joni Sedberry. Joni, introduce yourself.

Joni Sedberry
Hey, Marc. My name’s Joni Sedberry. Like Marc said, I am a family law attorney that works at Harrison and Moberly. My main office is here in Fishers, Indiana.

Marc Lopez
So I know you and trust you. I’ve known you for quite some time, and I just wanted to jump in and ask, How is all of this pandemic—the stay at home order, the quarantine—how is this affecting family law cases?

Joni Sedberry
Family law cases are really kind of crazy right now. We have had a drop-off on a lot of cases, but at the same time, other cases are really picking up speed. We’ve got people that are concerned about parenting time right now with everything happening with COVID-19, we’ve got people that had just filed for divorce or that were waiting on a hearing, and now the courts are having to slow down their operations. So we’re seeing a lot of new stuff right now that we’re all trying to approach together.

Marc Lopez
I was in a CLE earlier this weekend, and Indiana Supreme Court Justice David—he made a comment that this is a temporary abnormal. And so I feel like a lot of us are trying to figure this stuff out. From your perspective—what you’re seeing—is COVID-19 affecting child custody, child transfers, or parenting time? Give me background on that.

Joni Sedberry
So it is affecting it from the perspective of—we’ve got a lot of people that are concerned about it obviously, especially when you’ve got one parent that works in law enforcement or in a grocery store or in healthcare, and you’ve got another parent that is working from home. Plus we have parenting time schedules that are summertime schedules versus school schedules. We all have a lot of questions about, Well, the kids aren’t in school now, so do I still have to follow the same parenting time plan?

And the short answer to that is—and of course everybody’s favorite attorney answer is it depends—but the short answer to that is, the governor’s orders specifically say that parenting time orders remain in place. So parenting time exchanges should be done as they are already ordered to be done, unless you have a specific court order on your case that says otherwise. So if you can still be going to a grocery store, I think you can still exchange a child or children for parenting time exchanges as ordered.

Marc Lopez
So that’s one of the essential functions that Governor Holcomb has carved out. You still have to honor parenting time guidelines and those are—

Joni Sedberry
Absolutely. The order specifically said parenting time exchanges should continue.

Marc Lopez
Awesome. So I’m not divorced—I grew up as a child of divorce, but there wasn’t a pandemic going on. If one parent has primary custody, and they do not feel as though the other parent—it’s safe to send their kid there—do they have any options?

Joni Sedberry
So we have one main thing that we need to do—make sure parents understand that even though the person is your ex or someone that you don’t particularly get along with, they— hopefully the best interest of the children remain at the forefront. We have to trust that no parent is going to do anything to put a child at risk intentionally. So if you have somebody—especially if they’re working in the healthcare field as a doctor or a nurse, and they feel that it is not safe for the children to continue the regular parenting time—we are working together to maybe substitute additional time over the summer or to do a Fall Break instead of Spring Break—something along those lines that accommodates—make sure that children get time with both parents.

But the hope is that we can keep things as normal as possible for kids during this time. As adults, we are able to kind of rationalize and read the news and figure out what’s going on, and kids are really struggling right now, because they have no idea. They just know their worlds have been turned upside down. So the plan is to keep parenting time as normal as possible for these kids during this time.

Now, if it rises to the level of, Hey, listen—mom or dad is not practicing social distancing. We found out they’re having birthday parties. We found out they’re doing these things. We found out that they’re not being safe, that they’re not washing hands. The courts are doing a great job of finding other ways to have hearings. Some courts are doing web hearings. Some courts are doing Zoom. Some judges are saying, Hey, let’s have a telephone call with all the attorneys on these cases and discuss this. And so specific situations can be brought to the attention of the court, if there’s major concerns. But for the most part, everybody needs to know—unless you’ve been told otherwise, you need to follow your parenting time plan as ordered.

Marc Lopez
I don’t practice family law at all, but I always hear it from friends such as you and others that it’s important to put the kids first and have good communication with your ex-spouse or your ex-partner. I can’t even imagine how beneficial it would be having a positive relationship—or at least positive communication—during this time. It would make everything so much easier,  especially if you’re able to just do these, Hey, I work in healthcare, let’s just do something different later on. It’s probably too late if you don’t already have it, but man—what a great reason to make sure you keep that positive relationship going.

I have read and I’ve watched the news reports—Indiana has an unprecedented level of unemployment claims, and the reason why is many businesses are being forced to shut. What can parents do if they’re having problems meeting their child support obligations during this time?

Joni Sedberry
Well, I recommend filing a petition to modify child support as soon as possible. One thing about child support is it can be modified retroactively to the day of the filing. So if your income is changing, I recommend getting that filed as soon as possible, so that the court is aware of that situation—but then also so the other side is aware. Just not paying support is not a good idea. 

Obviously, even if both parents lose their jobs, children still need to be fed, and they still need to be clothed and taken care of, and so paying what you can as much as you can is helpful and is advised for sure. But if you absolutely cannot do anything, you do need to get a petition to modify on file as soon as possible, knowing that your order stays in effect until the court says otherwise.

We also have a lot of people filing contempt actions—Hey, he’s behind in support, or, she’s behind in support—and one of the things is that in order for somebody to be held in contempt, it has to be a willful and intentional violation. And when you’ve completely lost your job and you have no income, that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re intentionally saying, I don’t want to support my children anymore. It just means the well has dried up.

So we are finding that there is a lot of compassion being given right now to those situations, but the more you go ahead and contribute as much as you can—even if it’s not your full order—the more the court is going to look at you not as somebody who intentionally withheld, but as somebody who just couldn’t do it. But again, we have to say—follow all court orders as much as you possibly can, unless you receive an order otherwise. But there are options to try to get at least some relief for you.

Marc Lopez
And so just to break that down. If you lost your job—number one—the court order is still an order. Pay what you can, as much as you can, and then file a modification. And the idea is if you have a hearing—and who knows when the courts are going to be having hearings again—that can be retroactive to when you actually file it.

Joni Sedberry
Yes, correct. And then another thing—our legal community is a pretty close group of people. We’re really trying to work together in as many ways as we can to keep everybody informed and keep processes moving. So even though courthouses aren’t open, a lot of attorneys and judges are working remotely and trying to keep the processes going. 

We’re doing mediations via Zoom. We’re having a lot of conferences, as far as we have several attorneys and judges even doing Zoom meetings each week just to keep everybody updated on what the governor’s new orders are and what we are doing with this case. And constant communication within the legal community has really helped. So even though the courts are not necessarily open and hearing cases as often as they were before, we have to understand there will be a backlog once the courts finally open again.

We’re trying to keep these things moving, so if you can reach an agreement with your ex on a child support modification or a parenting time modification, we can put those things into writing and get them filed with the court—and that’s just the same as having a court order it after a hearing. Or we are doing mediations and things like that to keep processes moving. So if you have a local attorney, check in with that attorney and see what options there are to get things resolved, rather than waiting until possibly the end of summer to get things done.

Marc Lopez
And Joni, you made a point earlier about contempt motions—it has to be willful. If some of your clients are calling up like, Hey, he hasn’t paid child support. I know he lost his job, but I want to file for contempt. What is your response?

I mean, I’m assuming most of the judges you’re in front of are probably just as reasonable as ones I’m in front of, and they’re not going to take it very kindly—clogging up their courts with these contempt motions for people that didn’t choose to lose their jobs. I mean, I just can’t imagine a judge would be happy to see these things filed. Am I right?

Joni Sedberry
Yeah, I think for the most part now, it’s a delicate balance, because like we said, kids still have to be fed and taken care of. And so when you have a parent contact you with legitimate concerns, you have to take your client’s concerns seriously. But we’re also having conversations about the big picture right now, and this pandemic is unprecedented. And we don’t know exactly what judges are going to do, and what their demeanor is going to be. Every judge is different, and every judge is human, and we’ve got some judges in some counties that have made their opinions clear. And it might be different for judges in other counties, or even from court-to-court.

So we are definitely having conversations with our clients about, Let’s look at the bigger picture here, and let’s also preserve resources and things, too. We may not want to spend money filing a contempt action, with the fees and everything associated with that. If you’re not receiving child support, you may need to be conserving those funds, because you may need to pay a little bit more toward your part of taking care of this child while the other parent is out of work, or something like that. So we’re just really trying to balance everything and come up with a solution that’s best for our clients—and even sometimes more importantly, what’s best for the kids that are wrapped up in these situations.

Marc Lopez
Anybody that just heard that—I want you to think about what she just said. Hey, it may be in your best interest not to pay an attorney. Conserve that money. That’s like, legitimate good advice. And that just goes to show you—that’s why I trust Joni so much as an attorney. She’s not trying to get out there and run up fees and whatnot. She’s trying to make sure that people are taken care of, and I appreciate that. I really do. I know my clients do, and anybody watching this does. Do you have any big takeaways for anybody watching this who’s confused about their case? Anything like that?

Joni Sedberry
I think the big thing is just that we’re all right there together. This is one of the first things that we have ever gone through where the entire world is going through this at the same time. We’ve never had a circumstance where we can offer as much sympathy and empathy to each other, because we’re all going through it. 

I can’t think of anybody that’s not impacted in some way, shape, or form—whether it’s business, or financially, or emotionally, or through loved ones—that’s not impacted by this. So we’re all in this together. Let’s have some consideration. Let’s look at the big picture. Let’s figure out what we could do going forward to kind of work together. And the way that we’re able to treat each other during this is really going to set the stage for coherence and relationships going forward.

I have some clients that have been major adversaries coming into this, and I have just witnessed them really pulling together and putting the kid at the forefront. Then I’ve got other cases where it’s going the opposite direction, and I truly think that when people are willing to come together and just look at the big picture of how can we get through this together—it’s going to make a difference going forward once this is all done and over with and possibly impact the relationship they have with the other side and their children for the remainder of their minor years.

Marc Lopez
Thank you so much for meeting with us. I appreciate it. I sincerely do.

Joni Sedberry
Thank you for this opportunity, Marc. It’s always a pleasure to work with you.

Marc Lopez
Thank you.

Attorney Joni L. Sedberry of Harrison & Moberly, LLP can be reached at 317-207-6088 or at jsedberry@harrisonmoberly.com.