An Oklahoma divorce and family lawyer's perspective on life, family and children

Do you know who actually writes the orders in most Oklahoma court cases? Not the judges, they have more important things to do. Most of the final written orders that you will see have been drafted by one of the attorneys in the case. Does this surprise you? Well, if that does  — you certainly will not be surprised that attorney often disagree about how that order should be written. In fact is  an entire phase of litigation post-trial, post-decision when the attorneys wrangle over the details.

This is how it works:

1. Trial or Settlement. When it finally comes to crunch time the parties to a lawsuit either settle the case and the attorneys draw up a preliminary settlement or the parties duke it our in trial and the judge draws up an order. In Cleveland County and many others the judges generally write something down on a form with two carbon copies called a” Summary Order”. In Oklahoma County the judges just start talking and the lawyers scribble furiously trying to get it all down.
2. Drafting the Journal Entry. The next stage is that one of the attorneys will go back to the office and sit down to try to put all the decisions or agreements into the proper legal form for what is called the Journal Entry. The Journal Entry is the official record of the ruling. It has to meet certain required legal formalities.
3. Presenting the Journal Entry to the other lawyers. The drafting attorney then presents the proposed Journal Entry (aka JE) to the other attorney for approval. The other attorney puts it in there file and forgets about it until you call and bug them. Then he pulls it out and marks it up asking for all sorts of changes, and sends it back.
4. Presenting the Journal Entry. If the attorneys can agree on the final language, then they sign it (sometimes client’s sign too) and the Journal Entry is presented to the judge for her signature. She signs it, it is copied and filed and then becomes a permanent record in the court file. Easy right?
5. Settling the Journal Entry. Sometimes the attorneys do not agree about what the judge said or how the journal entry should be drafted (surprised?) . In this case, one of the attorneys has to take the draft journal entry back to the judge by filing a Motion to Settle Journal Entry and asking the judge to approve his copy. The other attorney then shows up and tells the judge why  she disagrees with the draft and how it should be changed. The judge then makes the changes (or not).  The revised Journal Entry is then filed with the court.

Common Misunderstanding

There are  often occasions when the one party does not agree with the judge’s decision. This can cause problems because the party then refuses to sign the Journal Entry and instructs their attorney not to sign it. This is a common occurrence and one that is highly unfortunate because it wastes a great deal of time. Certainly, any party has a right to disagree with the judge’s ruling — that is what appeals are for. However, the Journal Entry is just a formal and official record of WHAT HAPPENED and not WHAT YOU WISHED HAPPENED or even WHAT SHOULD HAVE HAPPENED. Therefore, a party gives up nothing by signing a order they disagree with as long as they agree that it accurately reflects what happened and what was decided. Life would be easier if more people understood this.

Great luck, and I hope all your Journal Entries are settled!

Have you got a plan for college for your teenager? This is something that we are thinking about as our older son finishes up his 8th grade year at Longfellow Middle School. Today, I took a trip to the library in Norman to look through a few books on the subject.

The best book I found on the subject was Robin Mamlet and Christine Vandevelde’s book, College Admission. This post is about some of their advice.

Since our son is in the eighth grade, my take-away was mostly about how he can best use his time in the fist two years of high school to prepare for college and explore his interests. In, College Admission, the authors suggest that in the 9th and 10th grade the best thing your student can do is to explore their interests by discovering what they want to do in college. While your child is exploring, there are practical steps your child can take during the process.

• Get to know the high school college counselor. Experts matter. Although the high school counselors generally work with students actively applying to college in the 11th and 12th grades, your 9th or 10th grader should be able to make an appointment to discuss college with their counselor. The counselor should be a source of the most recent and practical advice on this subject.
• Encourage your child to maintain a good GPA. Many state colleges have admission guidelines that require them to admit students with certain grade point averages and class rank. A good target is between 3.5 and 4.0. At the beginning of high school your child has the opportunity to work hard and keep his GPA up.
• Help your child prepare for the ACT or SAT. These admission tests are an easy and objective way for college admission departments to sort through applicants. Those interested in preparing for the SAT should may take the PSAT (this is also important for those interested in the National Merit Scholar program), those interested in the ACT can arrange to take the PLAN. There are programs for study to help prepare for the tests, but the general advice is to (1) take rigorous courses in high school and; (2) read, read, read.
• Kept track of child’s class rank. Like GPA, many state colleges and universities admit those in the top portion of their high school class. Aim for the top ¼ . The University of Oklahoma Freshman admission guidelines generally require students to be top 25 %.
• Encourage your child to take AP classes. Advance placement credit shows your child’s ability to perform at the college level, and allows your child to get advanced credit so he can jump into more interesting classes once he get to college. Think about choosing those AP classes that relate to the major he wants to pursue in college.
• Develop your child’s extracurricular interests. What is your child’s passion? Try out different activities that allows him to show his interests as well as his leadership and social abilities outside of the academic setting. This is something highly personal, and something that your child develops on his or her own. If you child is interested in playing soccer think about ways for him to explore this interest by serving as an assistant coach, being a referee or getting involved in his local soccer organization. This will allow him to take his interest in the sport to a higher level that shows both leadership and community involvement. We don’t know what one can do with an interest solely in video games, but look on Youtube.com there seem to plenty of people who have taken their interest of video games and turned it to profit.

The other and probably most important take-away I had from the book was that this process is something that is going to have to be driven by the child. Your teenager is turning into an adult, and is taking more and more responsibility for his choices. The choice to go to college and perform well is something that is going to have to be internal to you child.

We care a great deal about our son and want the best for him, and although I think it may be hard not to push him, I do recognize that he is going to have to internalize the desire to go to college and adopt the practices that will help get him there. We will be available as advisers, but the choice is his.

What are your thoughts and experiences?