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Preparation of Orders and Judgments

Counsel for the moving party must prepare a formal order or judgment unless the Court orders the other party to do so. (The party preparing the original proposed order or judgment is referred to in this Rule as the “preparing party”.) Findings and Orders After Hearing must be prepared on brown paper and judgments must be on pink paper. The order or judgment must be prepared so that at least 2 lines of text appear on the page which will have the judge’s signature, and no text may appear after the judge’s signature. The “Agreement” or “Recommendation” portion of a Family Court Services report may be attached as an exhibit to an order or judgment when the court has adopted the listed provisions as its order. No other portion of the FCS report shall be attached to the order or judgment.

The order or judgment must be prepared and submitted to the other party (referred to in this rule as the “responding party”) within 5 calendar days of the hearing. The preparing party must forward it to the responding party for approval as to form and content unless the Court authorized the preparer to submit it directly to the Court. The responding party has 10 calendar days from the date the proposed order or judgment was mailed to review the order and either sign it as prepared or notify the preparing party in writing of objections to its content.

If the responding party fails to timely approve or object to the order or judgment, the preparing party must send a second letter to the responding party stating that the proposed order or judgment will be submitted to the Court for signature if no written response to the order is received within 5 calendar days of the second letter. If there is no written response to the second letter, the preparing party must submit the following to the Court clerk: (1) the proposed order; (2) copies of both letters to the responding party; and, (3) a declaration explaining the circumstances and requesting that the proposed order be signed by the judicial officer.

If the responding party timely objects to the proposed order or judgment and the parties cannot thereafter agree on the language of the order or judgment, the Court will be guided by the transcript of the hearing. Within 10 calendar days of receiving written objections to the proposed order or judgment, the preparing party must request and advance the cost for a transcript. Each party must be responsible for one-half of the cost of the transcript. Upon receipt, a copy of the transcript and a copy of the bill must be immediately provided to the responding party. No later than 25 calendar days after delivery of the copy of the transcript to the responding party (regardless of whether the copy is delivered personally or by mail), the parties must exchange new proposed orders or judgments based on the transcript. If the parties still cannot agree on the language of the order or judgment, then no later than 45 calendar days after delivery of the copy of the transcript to the responding party, the preparing party must submit the following to the judicial officer who made the ruling: (1) both parties’ final proposed orders or judgments; (2) a copy of the transcript; (3) all written objections from all parties; and (4) a clear explanation as to how the final proposed orders or judgments differ. Copies of all papers submitted to the Court must be immediately served on the responding party. The proposed order or judgment accepted by the judicial officer will be executed and filed. Failure to comply with this rule may subject a party or the attorney to sanctions.