AB 101

This bill makes changes to procedures relating to submission of parenting plans

in certain actions affecting the family.

Under current law, in any action affecting the family in which legal custody or

physical placement is contested, the parties are required to attend at least one

session of mediation, unless a court finds that attending mediation will cause undue

hardship or would endanger the health or safety of one of the parties and waives the

mediation requirement. If after the initial session the mediator notifies the court

that no agreement has been reached, or if mediation has been waived, the parties

must each file a parenting plan with the court within 60 days.

The bill requires parties who are directed to participate in an initial mediation

session to submit their proposed parenting plans to family court services or the

assigned mediator at least 10 days before the initial mediation session. The parties

may, but are not required to, exchange proposed parenting plans before the initial

mediation session. Proposed parenting plans may be submitted and exchanged

electronically. The bill maintains the requirement for the parties to each file a

parenting plan with the court if no agreement is reached in mediation or if mediation

was waived.

Under current law, a parenting plan must provide certain information,

including what legal custody or physical placement the parent is seeking, where the

parent lives currently and intends to live during the next two years, where the parent

works and the hours of employment, who will provide necessary child care and who

will pay for it, a proposed summer and holiday placement schedule, whether and how

the child may contact the other parent, what child support, family support,

maintenance, or other income transfer there will be, and how the child's medical

expenses will be paid. The bill removes any requirement to include information about

what child support, family support, maintenance, or other income transfer there will

be, or how the child's medical expenses will be paid, but adds a requirement that

proposed parenting plans include, with specific detail, what proposed variable costs

are expected to be incurred by or on behalf of the child.