Speaker 1:
All right, you bought the backpack, the calculator, a blue, not green notebook, and all the pencils your kids could possibly need. But what about your parenting agreements, activity and sports fees? So much going on when it comes to back to school. So joining to me with advice today on shared parenting of school aged kids, we have attorney Courtney Hannah, she’s the president of Joseph and Joseph Attorneys at law. Courtney, so good to have you on the show.
Courtney Hanna:
Thanks for having me today.
Speaker 1:
All right, before we get into kind of the topic a little bit, uh, this is the first time we’ve had Joseph and Joseph with us and I want you to just share more about your practice and what you guys offer.
Courtney Hanna:
Sure. The areas that we practice in are mainly family law. Anything from divorce, custody, prenuptial agreements – anything of that nature. And then also real estate. We do both transactional and litigation at our firms. So we use our transactional practice to help us with our litigation and our litigation to help us practice with our transactional.
Speaker 1:
And, uh, your firm has received several industry accolades. Um, what does that do for, for your client base when you have that?
Courtney Hanna:
Well, I hope that gives our clients confidence in the work that we can perform for them and the things that we’re able to do for them. So hopefully that gives them a level of comfort too.
Speaker 1:
I would imagine. And it probably makes you feel proud, proud to work where you are and to have the experience.
Courtney Hanna:
Definitely, definitely.
Speaker 1:
All right. Courtney, when we discuss family law, um, emotions are always running high. I can get every situation that you guys probably deal with, especially when kids are involved. Um, so what should parents be aware of? The kids are going back to school in a couple of weeks now, so, so you’ve got to kind of get things in order?
Courtney Hanna:
Yes and one thing that we always tell our clients is make sure that the school has a copy of whatever parenting arrangement that you have. So whether that’s a shared parenting plan or whether you have a sole custody arrangement so that the school knows what’s going on with these parties and that they can be aware of, you know, maybe today is dad’s parenting time, maybe today his mom’s parenting time. So, and so will be picking him up this day. Things of that nature. So don’t leave the school in the dark, not knowing exactly what’s happening with your arrangement.
And I find that everybody can feel a lot more comfortable knowing that all the people in their child’s lives know what’s supposed to be happening with them pursuant to those arrangements.
Speaker 1:
And is it the more information the better when it comes to passing along to the school? Does sometimes people try and keep that, I feel?
Courtney Hanna:
I think that as long as the school has a copy and that they’re aware of what’s going on so that if they get a call or something of that nature, they know how to handle that. Um, so for example, you could have a shared parenting plan, but one party could be the decision maker for all education related decisions.
Speaker 1:
Gotcha.
Courtney Hanna:
So, you know, the school would need to know that they would need to get that parents okay. On something that’s happening. So it’s important that they have that arrangement.
Speaker 1:
And what about the teachers? Is that just administration? You make sure they know and then if it’s necessary the teachers will be notified?
Courtney Hanna:
Yeah, I would make sure that the administration knows and it’s nice the teachers to know communication-wise – what they’re supposed to do or what they’re not supposed to do. Both parents are entitled to records, access notice and things of that nature, no matter if it’s a sole custody or shared parenting arrangement. But again, on decision making ability and things of that nature, I think it would be important for the teacher to also know specifically what’s going on and also so that they know what’s going on in their child’s home.
Speaker 1:
Right so that’s important of the whole learning process, right?
Courtney Hanna:
If you have a case where parties have recently split up and this is a new situation for their child, I think it’d be really important for the teacher to know that this child’s going to be experiencing some different things at home than they were maybe last year or something of that nature so they can properly look out for things and help to calm the child or . . .
Speaker 1:
. . . handle that emotional aspect.
Courtney Hanna:
Exactly, exactly.
Speaker 1:
All right, Courtney, when it comes to school fees and we know there are many and they keep adding up for a lot of parents, um, how is that cost shared?
Courtney Hanna:
Sure it is dependent on the agreement? Sure. It depends on the agreement. But this is really important because you need to make sure everything is in writing because it’s usually so-and-so is going to pay 60% of agreed upon extracurricular activities or something of that nature. So you want to make sure that you’ve talked to the other parent, that you’ve both agreed on the arrangement that you have it in writing with each other. Because when it comes to getting reimbursed for those expenses, you want to make sure you have something in writing with that party that says, we agreed on this, you agreed to pay it. And here it is.
And I know in my kids’ schools. Extracurricular enrolment was yesterday. So I know a lot of people are starting to do that and just make sure they understand what their process is through their plan, so that they can do it appropriately.
Speaker 1:
And considering that it is, um, you know, something that evolves so much kind of paperwork, letting the right people know, making sure you have things in writing. I imagine finding an attorney, a lawyer that’s going to know all of this is probably one of the most important first steps.
Courtney Hanna:
Definitely, and also finding an attorney that you’re comfortable with when you’re dealing with custody arrangements and your children and those are the most important things to you. So it’s a matter of finding somebody that you’re comfortable with, somebody that’s knowledgeable in the area and somebody that can make sure that they don’t just leave you at the doorstep. You know, when your case is over, they’re open for you to help answer these post decree questions that you may have. My paperwork says this, what does that mean, etc.? So it’s good to have somebody that can do all of those things for you.
Speaker 1:
And of course, you and your team at Joseph and Joseph can do exactly that so you can reach out to them all the info up there on screen. Courtney, great to have you.
Courtney Hanna:
Thank you.