Washington Learn
Twelve topics, in plain terms — and the both-triggers clock leads
Each topic is written in the Parenting Act's own vocabulary — parenting plan, residential schedule, decision-making authority — keys only citations that resolve against the verified corpus, and carries an honesty note naming exactly where county practice or a court's judgment controls. The first topic is first on purpose.
Read this one first
Washington's ninety-day clock needs BOTH triggers — filing AND service
No decree can enter until ninety days have elapsed since the petition was filed AND since the summons was served (or first published) — the LATER event controls. Filing alone runs half a clock; so does service alone. The fourth pattern on this platform, and the exact inverse of California's whichever-first rule: file and serve promptly, then the floor passes on its own while the paperwork proceeds.
RCW 26.09.030CR 4
Read the topic →
The GR 22 trap: financial documents must be filed SEALED
Washington family files are public — but GR 22 keeps specific things out of the public file when filed correctly: financial source documents (paystubs, tax returns, bank statements) ride a SEALED cover sheet, and personal identifiers ride the confidential-information form. File them unsealed and they are exposed; the pattern forms exist for exactly this.
GR 22
Read the topic →
The RCW 26.09.191 limitations: when the parenting plan MUST restrict
Four kinds of conduct — willful abandonment, physical/sexual/pattern-of-emotional abuse of a child, a history of acts of domestic violence, or a grievous or sexual assault — commonly REQUIRE the parenting plan to limit residential time, order sole decision making, and route disputes only to court. A domestic-violence history raises a rebuttable presumption of sole decision making, and no protected parent can be forced into face-to-face mediation.
RCW 26.09.191RCW 7.105.100
Read the topic →
Dissolution in Washington: no waiting period, no fault, a shall-enter rule
Washington opens the courthouse door the day residency (or military stationing) is real — no months-of-residency wait exists. The only ground is that the marriage is irretrievably broken, and if the other spouse joins the petition or does not deny the breakdown, entry of the decree is MANDATORY once the ninety-day floor passes. Denial slows the path through the statute's reconciliation branches; it does not create a fault trial.
RCW 26.09.030
Read the topic →
Parenting plans, not custody: Washington's own vocabulary
Washington replaced custody vocabulary in 1987: the instrument is a PARENTING PLAN with three mandatory components — a residential schedule, an allocation of decision-making authority, and a dispute-resolution process. The criteria weigh each parent's relationship with the child, and the mandatory pattern forms carry the structure.
RCW 26.09.181RCW 26.09.184RCW 26.09.187
Read the topic →
How Washington child support works: the table is IN the statute
Washington's basic support obligation lives in a statutory economic table — combined monthly net income from $2,200 to $50,000, per-child amounts for one through five children, presumptive up to and including $50,000 — and the WSCSS worksheets are MANDATORY in every support proceeding. Net income (after the statutory deductions), the parents' proportional shares, daycare and special expenses on top, and the statutory guardrails (the 45-percent limit, the self-support reserve, the $50-per-child minimum) complete the picture.
RCW 26.19.020RCW 26.19.035RCW 26.19.065RCW 26.19.071RCW 26.19.080
Read the topic →
Maintenance: six factors, no formula, misconduct-blind
Washington maintenance is a just-amounts-and-periods decision on six statutory factors — resources, retraining time, the marital standard of living, duration, age and condition, and the paying spouse's ability — without regard to misconduct. No statewide formula exists.
RCW 26.09.090
Read the topic →
Community property — with EVERYTHING before the court
Washington is a community-property state that divides just-and-equitably, without regard to misconduct — and unlike any other state on this platform, SEPARATE property is before the court too: the statute reaches property 'either community or separate' when a just and equitable division requires it. Characterization still matters enormously; untouchability is not the reason.
RCW 26.09.080RCW 26.16.010RCW 26.16.030
Read the topic →
Relocating with a child: sixty days' notice, thirty days to object
The Child Relocation Act sequences the move: the parent with majority residential time gives SIXTY DAYS' notice (or within five days of learning, when timely knowledge was impossible); an objection is due within THIRTY DAYS of receipt, by petition for modification pursuant to relocation; and the intended relocation carries a rebuttable presumption that it will be PERMITTED — rebutted only by showing detriment outweighing benefit on eleven statutory factors.
RCW 26.09.430RCW 26.09.440RCW 26.09.480RCW 26.09.520
Read the topic →
Changing a parenting plan: the adequate-cause gate comes first
A motion to modify a parenting plan is DENIED unless the supporting affidavits establish adequate cause for a hearing — only then does the court set a show-cause date. Behind the gate, major changes need a substantial change in circumstances (with the statute's own lanes: agreement, integration, detriment, the limitations conduct), while minor schedule adjustments ride a lighter track. Support modification runs prospectively on its own rules.
RCW 26.09.270RCW 26.09.260RCW 26.09.170
Read the topic →
Six protection orders, one chapter — and a firearms surrender rule
Washington consolidated its civil protection orders into one chapter with SIX types: domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, vulnerable adult, extreme risk, and antiharassment. Ex parte temporary orders can issue the same day; surrender orders require immediate surrender of all firearms, dangerous weapons, and any concealed pistol license. Protection is civil and does not wait for — or depend on — any family case.
RCW 7.105.100RCW 7.105.305RCW 9.41.800
Read the topic →
Domestic partnerships (62+) and committed intimate relationships — two honest edges
Washington's state registered domestic partnerships are AGE-GATED: both partners eighteen or older and at least one sixty-two or older — and they dissolve through the same chapter 26.09 machinery. Separately, Washington case law recognizes COMMITTED INTIMATE RELATIONSHIP property claims when long unmarried partnerships end — a judge-made doctrine with no statute behind it.
RCW 26.60.030RCW 26.60.090RCW 26.09.030
Read the topic →
What's covered — and what honestly isn't
Out-of-scope issues get their official path named, not silence — half-covering a subject is how people get hurt.
In scope on this platform
- ✓Dissolution, legal separation, invalidity — qualifier + tracker + learn
- ✓Parenting plans + the .191 limitations — parenting engine + learn
- ✓Child support (the economic table + worksheets) — support engine + learn
- ✓Maintenance factors — maintenance spotter + learn
- ✓Community/separate property — property organizer + learn
- ✓Relocation notice and objection — relocation organizer + learn
- ✓Modification + adequate cause — modification organizer + learn
- ✓Civil protection orders + firearm surrender — safety router + learn
- ✓State registered domestic partnerships (62+) — qualifier SRDP lane + learn
Routed out — with the official path
- Committed intimate relationship property claims
A judge-made doctrine with no statute — this statute-first platform names it honestly and routes to a Washington family lawyer; nothing is half-computed.
- Adoption
Chapter 26.33 proceedings run confidential with their own forms and counsel norms — the official court forms and the superior court's adoption process are the path; not covered here.
- Contested parentage litigation
The Uniform Parentage Act's contested lanes (genetic testing, assisted reproduction, de facto parentage adjudication) route to the official parentage forms and counsel — the platform teaches the vocabulary, not the litigation.
- Dependency and termination of parental rights
Dependency runs in juvenile court with appointed counsel — this platform does not touch juvenile proceedings, and says so.
- ICWA / Washington Indian Child Welfare Act
ICWA and WICWA carry their own federal-and-state framework and tribal sovereignty — specialist counsel and each tribe's own court and code are the path; this platform never crawls or stores tribal law.
- Minor guardianship
Minor guardianship runs under the Uniform Guardianship Act (Title 11) with its own official forms — a different title and process; not covered here.
- Appeals and discretionary review
Appellate practice has its own rules, deadlines, and counsel norms — the platform flags appealability questions for counsel and never computes appellate deadlines.
Twelve topics, corpus-keyed, in the Parenting Act's own vocabulary — with the platform's standing grammar: likely/commonly/verify, no outcome predictions, the mandatory pattern forms control, and out-of-scope issues named honestly with their official path instead of silently absent. Legal information, not legal advice.