SPR 94.04
                              FAMILY LAW ACTIONS


     A.   Ex Parte Restraining Orders.  Personal appearance of a party may be
required upon the judge's request if a party requests an ex parte order be
entered immediately restraining the other party from the family home.

     B.   Temporary Orders.  The initial show cause hearing for temporary
relief shall be heard on affidavits only unless, after appropriate motion, the
court allows live testimony.  The following shall apply to all contested
hearings in which temporary relief is sought:

          (1)  Responsive Affidavits.  Responsive affidavits shall be served
and filed no later than one business day prior to hearing pursuant to CR 6(d).
To ensure that pleadings are available in the court file for timely review by
the court, parties are encouraged to file pleadings before noon two days prior
to the hearing.

          (2)  Exhibits and Worksheets.  Financial exhibits and support
worksheets shall be filed in the form as provided by these rules whenever
financial matters are in issue.

     C.   Child Support.  The Washington State Child Support Schedule as
adopted and amended from time to time by the legislature shall be applied by
the Court and Counsel in all matters involving child support, temporary or permanent.

     D.   Settlement Conferences.  Settlement conferences shall be mandatory in
domestic relations cases with the exception of a petition to modify child
support.  The Court Administrator shall set a time and date for a settlement
conference at the time the matter is set for trial.  The settlement conference
shall be scheduled no earlier than 10 days from the notification and no later
than 10 days prior to trial.  The settlement conference shall be set before the
judicial department of the superior court not assigned to hear the trial.  The
conference must be confirmed by each party before 12:00 p.m. the day prior to
the scheduled conference.

     E.   Position Statements.  In all final hearings or trials in domestic
relation matters, each party shall file and serve on the opposing party and the
court a written domestic relations position statement, which shall include the
Washington Pattern Form financial declaration (WPF 01.0550).  The petitioner is
required to file his/her position statement three (3) business days prior to
the scheduled final hearing.  The respondent shall file his/her position
statement two (2) business days prior to the scheduled final hearing, trial, or
settlement conference.  In preparing the position of a party to a domestic
relations matter, the assumptions and alternate residential guidelines set
forth on Exhibit D to these rules should be considered.

     F.   Noncontested Marriage Dissolutions - Delivery of Decree to Other
Party.  In default dissolution cases at the time of entry of the decree, the
moving party or counsel shall immediately deliver to or mail to the other
party, at their address if known, (or to their counsel), a conformed copy of
the decree, with the date of filing indicated on each copy so delivered or mailed.

     G.   Date of Support Payments.  If, in any marriage dissolution case,
support, whether temporary or permanent, is to be paid, the order or decree
shall specify the day upon which said order becomes effective and the day or
days certain upon which said support shall be due.

     H.   Support Paid Through Registry of Court.  Payments still required to
be made through the Registry of the Court shall be by certified check, cash or
money order.  Child support payments shall be paid in the form of money order
or cashier's check made payable to the Kittitas County Clerk, directly to the
registry of the Kittitas County Superior Court Clerk who will forward the
amounts received to recipient at recipient's mailing address, or such other
address as recipient shall provide the clerk's office in writing.

     I.   Mandatory Impact on Children Seminar.

     (1)  Definition of Applicable Cases.  This rule applies to all domestic
cases including dissolutions, legal separations, major residential
modifications and paternity actions in which paternity has been established,
where the parties are parents of a child or children under the age of 16, or
where a party is not a parent but is seeking custody, and where a parenting
plan or residential plan involving more than purely financial issues is required.

     (2)  Impact on Children Seminars; Mandatory Attendance.  Unless waived
pursuant to paragraph 4 below, within 60 days after service of a petition or
initiating motion on the respondent, both parties shall participate in, and
successfully complete, an approved Impact on Children Seminar.  Standards for a
court-approved Impact on Children Seminar are set forth in sections (7) and (8)
below.  Successful completion shall be evidenced by a certificate of attendance
filed by the provider agency with the court.  The petitioning party shall
provide notice to the other party, in or with the petition, of the requirements
of this rule.  In the event that a party complies with this rule through the
use of an alternative seminar not issuing a certificate of completion, that
party shall file an Affidavit of Attendance setting forth at a minimum the
date(s) and place of attendance, the sponsor or agency holding the seminar, and
the title or description of the seminar.

     (3)  Permissive Application.  The court may require parties with children
living in the household in domestic violence actions brought under RCW 26.50,
and non-parent parties in any domestic case, to attend an Impact on Children Seminar.

     (4)  Special considerations/waiver.  In no case shall opposing parties be
required to attend a seminar together, nor more than one seminar. Parties may
use equivalent services offered by another courts, private agencies or
religious organizations, upon approval by the judge in the individual case.
The court may waive the seminar requirement for one or both parties in any case
for good cause shown, or may approve an alternative program or seminar to
enable the party affected to receive the same or similar child impact information.

      (5) Fees.  Each party attending a seminar shall pay a fee charged by the
approved provider agency directly.

     (6)  Failure to Comply.  Non-participation, or default, by one party does
not excuse participation by the other party.  A party's refusal, delay or
default shall not delay the progress of the case to a final decree.  Willful
refusal or delay by either party may result in sanctions imposed by the court,
or may result in the imposition of monetary terms, default and/or striking of
pleadings, and/or refusal to entertain post-decree motions and petitions.

     (7)  Seminar Location/Content.  A court-approved Child Impact Seminar
shall be available in a designated Kittitas County meeting location, or may
occur at such other sites as may be approved by the court and shall provide, at
a minimum, information on:

          (a)  The developmental stages of childhood;
          (b)  Stress indicators in children;
          (c)  Age appropriate expectations of children;
          (d)  The impact of divorce on children;
          (e)  The grief process;
          (f)  Reducing stress for children through an amicable resolution of disputes;
          (g)  The long-term impact of parental conflict on children;
          (h)  Importance of child's relationships with both parents, and with
               extended family members, and fostering those relationships;
          (i)  Communication skills for divorced parents;
          (j)  Practical skills for working together; and
          (k)  The impact on children when step-parents and blended families enter their lives;
          (l)  Parenting children with limited time (alternate residential time limits)
               and fair parenting (impact on child when parent abstains from
               discipline/showers child(ren) with gifts/"sides" with child against other
               parent/succumbs to guilt feelings (whether self-imposed or brought on by
               child(ren), etc.); and
          (m)  Involvement of extended family.

     (8)  Qualifications of Instructors.  Child Impact Seminars should be
conducted by a team of not less than two instructors, including one male and
one female.  Instructors should be familiar with the required provisions of
parenting plans, and have the following minimum credentials and experience:

          (a)  A Master's Degree in Social Work, Psychology or other related behavioral science;
          (b)  Supervised experience in treatment of emotionally disturbed children,
               adolescents and their families;
          (c)  Experience in providing a wide range of mental health services
               to children and families, with specific experience in the areas
               of separation/divorce, loss and grief, and blended families;
          (d)  Extensive knowledge of child development, age appropriate expectations
               for children, and positive parenting;
          (e)  Substantial knowledge of the impact on children of alcohol/drug abuse by
               family members;
          (f)  An ability to work with other agencies as part of a collaborative program; and
          (g)  Strong oral communications skills.

     When parties choose to use agencies or religious organizations which have not received
prior approval by the court, the court may modify or waive the foregoing qualifications for
the instructors upon a showing of functional equivalency.

     (9)  Conduct of Parties.  The Court shall not consider a party's conduct,
demeanor, or level of participation at the seminar in determining the
provisions of a parenting plan.

     J.   Mandatory Settlement Conferences.  In each contested action for
dissolution, declaration of invalidity or legal separation, or when ordered by
the court, counsel and the parties shall participate in a conference presided
over by a judge, judge pro tem or court commissioner.

          (1)  Excused Attendance.  A party may be excused from attendance or a
settlement conference may be stricken when compelling attendance would be
unduly burdensome.  Request for non-attendance should be made at least 24 hours
in advance to the Court and opposing counsel.

          (2)  Proceedings Confidential.  Proceedings of said settlement
conference shall, in all respects, be confidential.  No party shall be bound
unless a settlement is reached.  When a settlement has been reached, the judge
may in his discretion, order any agreement to be placed on the record.

          (3)  Disqualification of Judge.  A judge presiding over a settlement
conference is presumed to be disqualified from hearing any other matter
regarding the action, but this presumption may be overcome by stipulation of the parties.

          (4)  Preparation Required.  Prior to said conference, each party
shall have submitted to the other party and to the court a completed position
statement in accordance with LCR 11(e) above.