How Pendente Lite Orders Protect You During the Divorce Process

Join us as we sit down with Founding Attorney, Lewis Landerholm, to discuss how pendente lite court orders can protect you in the midst of a divorce case.

As a leading divorce firm in Portland, our attorneys provide guidance on custody, alimony, separation, estate planning, and more. Learn what to expect in Oregon and Washington divorce cases and how we can help.

If you would like to speak with one of our attorneys, please call our office at (503) 227-0200, or visit our website at https://www.pacificcascadelegal.com.

Disclaimer: Nothing in this communication is intended to provide legal advice nor does it constitute a client-attorney relationship, therefore you should not interpret the contents as such.

Transcript

Speaker 1  00:00:01

Welcome to Modern Family Matters, a podcast devoted to exploring family law topics that matter most to you, covering a wide range of legal, personal, and family law matters. With expert analysis from skilled attorneys and professional guests, we hope that our podcast provides answers, clarity, and guidance towards a better tomorrow for you and your family. Here's your host, Steve Tian.

Speaker 0  00:00:31

Hi everyone. I am Steve Altishin, Director of Client Partnerships here at Pacific Cascade Legal, and today I'm here with our founding attorney, Lewis Landerholm, to talk about pendente lite orders in Oregon divorce cases. Alright Lewis, how you doing today?

Speaker 3 00:00:48 Great, how are you Steve?

Speaker 0  00:00:50

I'm doing today. Good. I really like the two things we're doing today. So this one especially 'cause we've done orders on temporary orders, we've done orders on emergency orders, and kind of that last little group of them are these things called pendente retail orders. So kind of before we start in, can you talk a little bit about what they actually are? Not each one, but what it generally is and at what point during the divorce, you know, can a spouse start to ask for them?

Speaker 3  00:01:26

Sure, yeah. So the pendente lita orders are orders that occur in the middle of the larger divorce proceeding or custody proceeding can happen in either one. So the the point or, or the things that we look at with new clients when we're filing a new, uh, divorce or a new custody case is do we need to change anything? Do we need to get anything in place so that, um, you know, one parent has potentially support or what the parenting plan is gonna look like, or custody determination or all of these things that the law is silent on at the beginning of a case. So what, you know, if there are those particular issues that come up, then we file for a hearing. Normally we do this as soon as a case is filed. It doesn't have to be, it can be filed later in a case, but timing wise, at least in Oregon, it generally takes a few months to get in front of a judge. So we want to file it as early as possible so that we can go and talk to the judge and get some of these orders in place that, that we'll talk about today.

Speaker 0  00:02:34

Let's kind of start with the first one, which you hear a lot about. Spouses talking about how they can't afford the divorce maybe, or, you know, what am I gonna do if they, they stop paying for the, for the stuff. And so maybe talk a little bit about temporary orders that can help a espouse pay for the cost of the divorce or maintain them while the divorce is ongoing In

Speaker 3  00:03:00

A motion for, um, this hearing, you can ask for what's called suit money, which is money directly used to help finance the other spouse's, that spouse's case so that they can pay their legal fees, pay expert fees, that sort of thing. So that's one component that can be asked for in the hearing itself. The other two that can be asked for on a support basis are both child support and temporary spouse support. A lot of times the court will order what's called just a, a generalized family support and reserve, how it's going to be divided or defined later. Um, but those are, those are things that can be asked for and ordered in this hearing

Speaker 0  00:03:46

If you get it. If, if it's granted, especially something like a soup money, does that money come right away or is it something that's that's, you know, resolved at the end of the case?

Speaker 3  00:04:00

Uh, it depends on what the judge orders. Most of the time suit money comes right away. There'd be a timeline of, you know, say pay it within 30 days or pay it within two weeks or whatever. So normally that is paid right away. Support would be an ongoing obligation, a monthly obligation. So that one would be over time essentially.

Speaker 0  00:04:21

Can you ask for that more than once? You know, let's say you need some money to pay your attorney right off the bat, but maybe then as it gets more complicated there could be expert testimony appraisals. Can you kind of take a second dip in that?

Speaker 3  00:04:35

I mean you can, but practically speaking there isn't a lot of time to do that, so it would be difficult to get two on the docket in one case just because you know, you're taking four months and then by the time you get another four months you're, you know, you're at trial most of the time.

Speaker 0  00:04:55

So it's, yeah, it sounds like it's important then for, you know, the client to get really good advice

Speaker 3 00:05:02 Yeah.

Speaker 0  00:05:02

About, you know, estimating what those costs could are gonna be right at, you know, at the start before you have to ask.

Speaker 3  00:05:09

Yeah, because we wanna get, get that hearing filed and on the docket as quickly as possible. Otherwise, you know, we just lose the opportunity to actually get in front of a judge in having any meaningful change as far as support as the help that that spouse needs.

Speaker 0  00:05:28

And you get temporary orders on, you know, how the children are gonna be taken care of, you know, what, what's gonna happen to the children while the d divorce is proceeding?

Speaker 3  00:05:39

Yeah, most of the time that's one of the, the big reasons why file for pendente leete hearing is to establish a temporary parenting plan so that way everybody understands what the schedule is gonna look like. Uh, normally temporary custody is punted to the end of the case. So that, 'cause there's a lot, not a lot of, uh, times that a, a custody decision has to get made right away. You know, that can change depending on the facts of the case, but most of the time we're dealing with a temporary parenting plan

Speaker 0  00:06:14

Is the safety of the children or the safety of a spouse, even something that can be brought up as a temporary order.

Speaker 3  00:06:26

So I guess it depends on what's happening, right? The facts would dictate. So if there, there's a, there are restraining orders and restraining orders would be for abuse, actual abuse, threats of abuse that have occurred. So that's a little bit different on, in this case if there were safety concerns. I guess it depends on what the safety concerns are, but one of the, one of the things that can be asked for in, uh, pendente is what's called exclusive use of the home. And so if there's tension emotions, you know, maybe it doesn't raise to the level of abuse, but there's a reason to ask one, the judge to order one of the parents to move out of the home, then that can happen in, in this hearing itself. So, and that also, uh, can occur, uh, and be asked for in cases even without kids. So the spouse, if there's, again, it doesn't necessarily have to be abuse, it could be emotional, um, emotional abuse, it could be yelling, screaming, you know, just tension in general that it's available to be asked for in any divorce case. Uh, or in this hearing,

Speaker 0  00:07:38

Let's take a little time here to talk about, because this kind of a case seems to be where, where I kinda like to talk, have you talk about it, it's the person that maybe is being restrained or, uh, denied use of the house. Right. Is there a process that they can use to argue against this or is this all just in one, you know, you put your motion out and you go?

Speaker 3  00:08:08

I mean I think it depends on, uh, the facts. So generally, yes, there are times when it won't be ordered if, uh, like the finances of the parties just don't allow for one, uh, one parent to move out or there's a way for them to essentially live separately within the, in the house and, and maybe there aren't these other issues. But generally, you know, I think the court feels that it's good for the parties to separate if, if tensions are high and, and so everything can sort of calm down to a certain extent. And so a lot of times there will be order that somebody moves out of the house if, if one of the parents is asking for it.

Speaker 0  00:08:48

So if I come to you and we talk about this and I say my big fear is that if we have my spouse move out, it's their income that's paying for the mortgage, you know, paying for the, the lights paying for, you know, all of sort of the household costs. Can the let a order deal with that?

Speaker 3  00:09:11

Yeah. Another thing that can be asked for at the hearing is that any secured debts be paid, so even as part of support or outside of support, mortgages, car payments, you know, things that are secured against pieces of property can be ordered that they can continue to get paid. So that's how that part, so you, you can definitely still get mortgages, uh, paid for. They, the practical problem is that depends on how much money we're talking about is, you know, is there enough money to pay for the house along with setting up a new household for the parent who has to move out. And so it's an analysis on just the finances overall and um, you know, what's available for both parties to continue to live.

Speaker 0  00:09:58

And can you also have a pendente lead a order regarding other property? You know, maybe they own a business, maybe there have, there's a, there's a vacation, you know, property, cars can, can a pendente or does it normally just not work to cover those during the, the course of the divorce?

Speaker 3  00:10:24

Yeah, I think it just depends on whether we're talking about paying for those or awarding them. Normally you can kind of get exclusive use of a car or exclusive use like we talked about with the house. It gets kind of, you know, we, we just have to see what the whole situation and circumstances are about the payment of these things. So it can, we can ask that these things be paid for personal property gets a little trickier whether it will be awarded or not. So it's really a factual analysis that we have to do at the beginning on, on what we need to ask for what's going on, you know, factually between the parties, a lot of these things, whether, you know, a judge grants them or not, we can get agreement between the parties on like say one person wants to get their things out of the house, well that's not always something that a judge will order. You know, we can negotiate with the other side, the other attorney to arrange for that person to, to get their belongings. So there's, there's ways to kind of negotiate and, and manage those issues during the case whether a judge actually orders it or not.

Speaker 0  00:11:32

Uh, are some of these temporary orders also used as a strategy? Um, do you see that happening where, well, if you get the house now, if you get temporary in the house, maybe you know you're gonna, it's gonna make you more likely to get, get it permanently in a division of property or is that really not, you know, a factored into then they meeting or order is all about?

Speaker 3  00:12:01

So I mean, again, it depends on the facts. The house specifically is an issue that comes up often. You know, the court doesn't necessarily care about the value of the home, the value of the home, if it's marital, it's marital, it's gonna be divided. It's really about if, if one party wants to be able to buy the other person out and be awarded the home and have that opportunity, then the person who remains in the home typically has a better argument to be made that they should be able to keep the, keep the house. But the, the, the other party would still get their half of the equity. So the the practical consideration is can that person refi, um, or come up with the funds to buy the other party out, um, to get their name off the mortgage. You know, that's always a big sticking point with, with a home is that, um, the court can't tell the mortgage company what they can and can't do.

Speaker 3  00:12:57

And so even if the judge awards the home to the other party, it doesn't tell the mortgage company that they have to then turn around and take that, take the other person's name off the mortgage. So there's that part of it that becomes a, um, a practical analysis. But a lot of times whoever initially stayed in the home and is servicing the mortgage has a stronger argument too, be the one who gets to buy the other person out, you know, obviously depending with the caveat that they have to be able to qualify to do that.

Speaker 0  00:13:31

Are there any other types of situations that we haven't talked about yet that could arise, which would bring about someone wanting to get one of these orders?

Speaker 3  00:13:44

The big ones. Trying to think if there's anything else that really comes up. You know, frequently the big ones are your parenting plans, uh, your child support. Uh, we didn't really get into the support, the child support component by itself. You know, in, um, uh, in non divorce cases where spousal support is not available then, uh, child support can get turned on in a temporary penta hearing. Um, so we get, you know, normally get a parenting plan that gets ordered, we get the incomes of the parties and then a child support, um, order will flow from that. So, um, you know, that's definitely something that, that happens frequently. I would say, yeah, really these are the big ones. The big ones that, um, that we deal with are the, uh, support parenting plan, um, the exclusive use of the home payment for secured debts and you know, kind of working out any property issues that are, you know, sort of need to get dealt with, you know, right out of the gate. So those are the main issues that that drive whether a pendente leade makes sense.

Speaker 0  00:14:59

You were talking about how, you know, the difficulty in trying to do more than one, as you keep going on in a, uh, pendente leading order be modified if especially I'm thinking like a parenting plan or something that comes up during the middle of the divorce. Can those things be modified or are they in stone until the final disillusion?

Speaker 3  00:15:23

Normally they're in stone. Just again, it doesn't make sense to try to, you know, use the court to modify anything. What we typically will do is just negotiate with the other side. Um, if minor changes have to be made, because like any parenting plan, you know, the parties are free to modify the parenting plan, it's just not enforceable. So you know, if, if, because this is generally new for the parties, so if there's, if there's an order or if there's an agreement that this is going to be the plan, but then, you know, you start to, you start to work through that plan, then you quickly learn where the, the problems are or where the deficiencies in the plan, so then on the fly you can make those changes without necessarily having to get a judge involved.

Speaker 0  00:16:09

Right. And you've already got some base, so it's actually probably easier to resolve it than to try to get it modified. Yeah,

Speaker 3  00:16:17

Because you're not starting from scratch at that point. It's generally more mechanical of like drop off pick times training one day for another day because you know, you realize that, you know, either the travel time or the work schedule or the school schedule just doesn't coincide the right way. And so it's kind of like what the court wants to see happen. Most of the time they wanna see the, the parties be able to communicate and, and, and talk about changes. So that's, that's not a bad thing. It's a good thing. It's just, uh, you know, it just depends on how, how we get that done, whether we use a judge to do it or whether we can just negotiate.

Speaker 0  00:16:54

Got it. Well, Louis, looks like we ran out of our time. Again, great conversation. Thank you for, you know, sitting down to talk about, you know, what pendente lead orders are in Oregon, divorces, custody cases, and I'm sure there, there are also legal separations, annulments and you know, giving us an idea of what they are, how you get them done and when they should be done. So thank you for joining us today.

Speaker 3  00:17:24

Yeah, you're welcome.

Speaker 0  00:17:25

And everyone else, thank you for joining us. If anyone has any further questions, please feel free to contact our firm. We can get you connected with an attorney who can. So until next time, stay safe, stay happy and be well.

Speaker 1  00:17:41

This has been Modern Family Matters, a legal podcast focusing on providing real answers and direction for individuals and families. Our podcast is sponsored by Lander Home Family Law, and Pacific Cascade Family Law serving families in Oregon and Washington. If you are in need of legal counsel or have additional questions about a family law matter important to you, please visit our websites@landerhomelaw.com or pacific cascade family law.com. You can also call our headquarters at five oh three two two seven zero two hundred to schedule a case evaluation with one of our seasoned attorneys, modern Family Matters, advocating for your better tomorrow, and offering legal solutions important to the modern family.