WORKSHEETS

Introduction: Why You Need Worksheets

The first step in deciding the issues of your divorce is to begin filling out these worksheets (below) which pertain to possible issues in your case. These serve as checklists, requiring you to think about each of the issues raised and how you will resolve them. The main issues are what should be an equitable (fair) distribution of the property and debts, who will need maintenance and how shall the responsibility for the children's needs, including their ongoing care, be handled.

Gathering this information is not an easy task; but it has to be done. Take your time, particularly when thinking about your choices. Once you have the facts assembled, you will realize how important that task was. It will give you a good feeling of accomplishment and you will be surprised to discover how easy some choices are. In addition to gaining an understanding of the law, you will be equipped to arrive at a fair settlement while providing for your children's needs as well as your own.

The worksheets are also helpful for setting an efficient agenda should you choose to consult with a lawyer. The more homework you do, the less the lawyer will have to do and the less the lawyer will charge you! There are four worksheet sets in this chapter. They are:

1) Parenting Plan Worksheets

2) Child Support Worksheets

3) Financial Planning Worksheets

4) Assets & Liabilities & Distribution

If you and your spouse have children, the formulation of a temporary parenting plan is one of the first steps in the divorce procedure. (If you do not have children of this marriage, you may skip this section.)

The following information is provided to assist you in drafting your temporary and permanent parenting plans.

(1) Dispute Resolution

After your divorce you and your ex-spouse may encounter some conflict about your parenting styles which cannot be resolved between yourselves. The law requires divorcing parents to choose a process for resolving those disputes. Your chosen method for resolving disputes must be written into your permanent parenting plan.

Methods to resolve disputes include counseling, mediation, arbitration, and court action. However, you do not have to use mediation, arbitration or counseling if either parent is unable to afford the costs, or if one of the parents has exhibited certain behavior in the past which would be counter-productive to those methods of solving conflict. Such behavior would include deliberately abandoning the children for a long period of time; repeatedly refusing to perform parenting functions; physically, sexually or emotionally abusing the children or you; or committing acts of domestic violence against you or the children. Under those circumstances, you would use court action to resolve your disputes.

State below which method you prefer for resolving disputes. Name your second and third choices. Below, list your choice of individuals or agencies to resolve the disputes. Also list the reasons why you like certain methods and not others. The court will consider all relevant factors that may affect your ability to participate fully in a certain process (such as lack of money, spouse's overwhelming personality traits, fear, etc.)

Counseling: ____________________________________________________________

Mediation: ____________________________________________________________

Arbitration: ____________________________________________________________

Court action: ____________________________________________________________

(2) Which parent will make decisions?

Each parent may make decisions regarding the day-to-day care and control of the child while the child is residing with that parent. This means that if your child lives with you during the week, you can decide, for example, what the child eats, when he/she goes to bed and what TV programs can be watched at that time. Also, either parent may make emergency decisions affecting the health and safety of the child when the child is with that parent.

But the law says that you and your spouse must choose whether one or both of you makes the major decisions on behalf of your child -- decisions concerning your child's education, health care and religious upbringing. You must state in the parenting plan which parent will make these major decisions. If both parents share the responsibility for making decisions, it is called "mutual decision-making"; if only one parent makes the decisions, it is called "sole decision-making."

In determining who should make the major decisions for the children, the court considers:

NEXT: Indicate who you feel should make the decisions for the following: ("B" = "both parents", "M" = "Me", "S" = "Spouse.")

(3) Residential Schedule

You will need to include in your parenting plan where your child will be living every day of the year. This is required because the courts believe that parental conflict over access to the children is minimized by insisting that everyday is covered in the Plan. But first, the court would consider whether you or your spouse had engaged in any of the negative behaviors identified in the previous section (such as abandonment, physical violence, emotional abuse of child, etc). If none of this behavior has occurred, the court's next step in its reasoning would include the following factors:

(1) The child's relationship with each parent, including whether one parent has taken greater responsibility for the child's daily needs;

(2) Each parent's past and future potential for performing parenting functions;

(3) The emotional needs and developmental level of the child;

(4) The child's relationship with his/her brothers and sisters and other adults involved in his/her life;

(5) The importance in the child's life of the home where he/she is now living, the school which he/she is now attending, and the activities in which the child is now involved;

(6) The wishes of the parents; and

(7) The wishes of the child if he/she is mature enough to express reasoned and independent preferences as to where he/she wants to live.

BUT NOTE: The court will give the greatest weight to the child's relationship with each parent.

If you and your spouse have in the past shared parenting functions, the court would allow an agreement where the child alternated his/her residence between you and your spouse for brief and substantially equal periods of time. But there must be strong proof both parents are capable of cooperative parenting. If the child is in elementary or middle school and is performing well in school, it might be in his/her best to continue in that school and live with the parent who is in the home nearest the school. If the child is in high school, the wishes of the child would certainly be a factor in where the child lives and goes to school.

Your plan must designate one household as the child's residence. Generally, this would be the home where the child spends a majority of his/her time. This designation is solely for the purpose of jurisdiction, venue and child support. Your plan must also designate one parent as the custodian, but only for the purpose of meeting certain requirements of other federal and state laws.

The law offers very few guidelines, beyond those listed above, for placement of children. This is perhaps purposely to allow the parents to come to a reasoned decision based upon the parents' own wisdom as to what is in the best interests of the children, without the interference of the court. Note, however, that the court ultimately must formally approve of your Parenting Plan. A judge must sign your Permanent Parenting Plan when it is finally agreed upon by you and your spouse.

Next: Indicate below which of the following times your child should spend with you and which he/she should spend with your spouse. Include on a separate sheet of paper any special reasons why you made a certain choice.

(complete this spreadsheet for each child) Show Even or Odd Years or All

Primary Residential Parent

My choice for residential parent:__________________________;

Spouse's probable choice for residential parent:__________________________.

2. CHILD SUPPORT WORKSHEET

The Decree must also include provisions for child support payments if there are children. (Note: If you do not have children of this marriage, you can skip this section.)

If the child will live with one parent most of the time, that parent will probably receive child support from the other parent. Specify in your Decree the exact amount of child support to be paid.

The Courts and the Legislature have evolved a Child Support Schedule for determining the appropriate amount of support, both temporary and permanent, which should be paid to the primary residential parent. These schedules are mandatory and are used by the court to promote settlement of disputes regarding the amount of support each parent is expected to contribute to raising their children.

These Schedules are complex. Read them thoroughly and understand them well. They provide for adjustments based upon instances such as the amount of time a child resides with each parent and for the fact that a child is in day care. The Schedule and its Worksheets in effect when this book was last published are provided in the Appendix for you to calculate the amount of support payable in your case. Read the Schedule carefully. Use a pencil to do the calculations so you can rework them. If you have questions about the application of the Schedules to your situation, consult an attorney or one of the other resources described in Chapter Two.

The child support worksheets are not as complicated as they appear. The court is primarily interested in the incomes of each parent. Calculating net income for wage earners is fairly straightforward and can be derived from averaging the gross wages and deductions for the past few months. The income of self-employed individuals is more difficult. The guidelines in the Appendix are helpful.

Instead of doing the income calculations twice, skip down to the worksheets on financial planning. After filling in these worksheets you will be able to simply transfer the information to your child support worksheets and you will be done with that task!

Congratulations are in order if you have been able to complete the Parenting Plan and Child Support Worksheets in one sitting. More likely you have had to put this away and come back to it over several sessions, talked to your spouse, made many erasures and chewed a few pencils to nothing before you finally are able to start drafting.

Assuming that you have gotten through these worksheets, or have no childern of this marriage, you may turn to the next worksheets on financial planning. If you have completed the worksheets on parenting and child support you may now go directly to the Forms section dealing with Parenting Plans and Support and start finalizing these forms. You may gets forms directly from the Administrator for the Courts at http://www.wa.gov/courts/domestic/home.htm.

3. FINANCIAL PLANNING WORKSHEET

If you have property to divide you should begin these worksheets by locating Source Documents.

(1) The Source Documents - Certain documents are necessary for filling out the financial worksheets. These can include:

(a) prenuptial contract or community property agreement;

(b) property deeds, mortgage and contract agreements title insurance policies, mortgage payment records, rent receipts, property tax receipts, property improvement receipts;

(c) checking accounts, savings accounts, bonds, stocks, mutual funds;

(d) auto/vehicle/boat titles and registrations;

(e) income tax returns and W-2 forms; other evidence of earnings and work receipts;

(f) medical records;

(g) business records; and

(h) canceled checks and check registers.

Your individual situation will determine the importance of these documents and which ones you will need to consider. If your spouse has some or all of the documents, you will have to request copies. If your spouse refuses to give you this essential information, you will probably have to obtain an attorney. At that time you will formally ask the court's assistance in production of these documents.

(2) The Financial Declaration

Personal Background Information, and Income: This worksheet is derived from the mandatory Financial Declaration. The state requires this Declaration for every court nearing in which the spouses contest financial matters. For example, if the spouses cannot agree on how much child support is to be paid, whether a spousal maintenance transfer payment is justified or whether attorney fees are to be awarded, then both spouses need to fill out and timely file these forms with the court. A spouse who fails to fill out the form may be required to pay a monetary fine. Once you have filled out the worksheets (below) concerning income and expenses, this information is easily transferrable to the mandatory Financial Declaration.

Note that even though the Financial Declaration permits you to skip the income information when seeking child support (because you are required to fill out the child support worksheets instead) you should go ahead and work on the income worksheet. Besides helping you formulate an idea of you and your spouse's income, this information will help you determine whether spousal maintenance is warranted, assess distributions, et cetera.

Personal Information and Income Worksheet

Occupation: _______________________________________________________.

The highest year of education completed: ___________________________________________.

Are you presently employed? [ ] Yes [ ] No

If yes: (1) Where do you work (name and address)? _______________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________

When did you start work there (month/year)? _________________________.

If no: (1) When did you last work (month/year)? _________________________.

What were your gross monthly earnings? _________________________.

Why are you presently unemployed? _________________________.

Income

Note: If you are paid on a weekly basis, multiply your weekly gross pay by 4.3 to determine your monthly wages and salaries. If you are paid every two weeks, multiply your gross pay by 2.15. If you are paid twice monthly, multiply your gross pay by 2. If you are paid once a month, list that amount above.

If income of either party's income is disputed, state the monthly income you believe is correct. Explain below:

(4) "Available" Assets

This worksheet is helpful to the court in determining what immediate cash or cash equivalent resources are available to the parties. These liquid resources would not include house or car equity because they are not easily or immediately able to be turned into cash. However, bank accounts, CD's, et cetera are considered liquid. You might want to fill out this worksheet after completing the more comprehensive worksheets on Assets and Liabilities (6).

(5) Your Living Expenses. You will need to determine the reasonable and foreseeable expenses for you and the children, calculated on a monthly basis for the next year. You need this information to draw up a proper budget. Be sure to use a pencil, not a pen, when filling out this portion of the worksheet because you will undoubtedly need to make changes as you go. This worksheet closely parallels the equivalent mandatory form, so by preparing this worksheet you will save time in filling out the mandatory form later.

The monthly expenses for myself and dependents are: (Expenses should be calculated for the future, after separation, based on the anticipated residential schedule for the children.)

Assets &Liabilities Worksheet, and Distribution Locator

Dividing Up Your Assets and Debts

We now turn to the task of figuring out what property and debts you have, putting a value on these and then working out a fair division of the property and the debts.

In taking an inventory of your property and debts, you should be mindful of the following:

a) "Fair Market Value" (FMV) is the value you could sell each asset for today, not the price you paid for it. Call dealers, look at ads, try to estimate what the gross sales price would be if you sold the asset on the open market.

b) If any asset is subject to an existing loan or other indebtedness, try to find out from the creditor what the current balance is on the debt.

c) When you finally determine the "gross fair market value" be sure to deduct the amount of any debt owing in the second column to get the "net fair market value" in the third column.

d) Some items are harder to value such as pensions, retirement, profit sharing or other deferred benefit or financial security plans. You may need an expert appraiser such as an actuary to help value these assets.

e) Review the discussions at page concerning "Property" before filling in your proposed distribution plan. When you are ready, put the value of the property you propose to have distributed to you and to your spouse in the appropriate columns. You are the Petitioner; your spouse is the Respondent.

You have now completed worksheets and you can feel confident as you go on to tackle the forms. By filling out these worksheets you have prepared a summary the sort of information you will need for the final steps in getting your Decree.

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