Motions and hearings

General information

If you want to ask a judge to do something in your case, you cannot simply speak with the judge. You must file a written request with the court clerk's office called a motion.

There are many types of motions and different rules may apply to different motions. You should always check the Superior Court Rules or the District Court Rules, plus the Local Court Rules for Superior Court or District Court to see if there are specific requirements for your motion.

Motions

A motion is a request to the court to do something in your case. You must have a court case in which to file a motion.

Most motions must be scheduled for a hearing so that all parties to the case have a chance to be heard by the judge about the request before the judge makes a decision. Certain types of motions may be done at “ex parte” which is a process for motions that can be done without the other parties attending, and then serve them afterwards. Ex parte is for things such as urgent issues or agreed orders.

There are many specific motions that can be made. Some common examples are: motions for temporary orders to be in place while your case is moving through the court system, motions for emergency orders if something urgent cannot wait for a temporary order, or motions for contempt when the other person isn’t following the court’s orders. The state has mandatory forms for some motions in some kinds of cases, generally family law cases. 

However, it is possible that you will want to file a motion where a standard form does not exist. In those cases, you can use a blank generic form and customize it for your situation. The law library has some form books to help you find examples of motions that are similar to your situation to give you some ideas of how to write your motion.

Declarations

You may need to file a declaration as part of your case. A declaration is a written statement that you swear under penalty of perjury is the truth. Examples of situations where a declaration may be helpful include: giving additional information to support your motion, to explain why documents or pictures you attach to it are relevant, or a having a witness to an event explain what they witnessed to help support your motion.

Washington LawHelp has more information about declarations in general civil cases as well tips for writing a declaration in a family law case. Clark County Superior Court Local Civil Rule LCR 4.1 addresses their use including the number and length of declarations.

Orders

An order is a ruling from the court about your motion. Typically when you file your motion you also provide a proposed order granting your requests that you hope the judge will sign. You should include the word “Proposed” before the name of your order in the caption. The judge can choose to sign it the way you wrote it, make changes to it and sign it, or decide not to sign it. If they sign it, they will cross out the word “Proposed” in the name of your document and it becomes an order.

For example you may file a motion asking that the other person give you a certain amount of money by a certain date to help you pay for an attorney. You would file a proposed order with it that says how much money they must give you and the date by which they must do so. The judge could sign that, could change the amount or date by which the other person must pay, or could decide to deny your request.

Hearings

A hearing is a stage in the court process where specific issues are "heard" and decided by the judge. While trials resolve all of the issues between parties, hearings are designed to address issues that come up during the process or issues that need to be decided prior to trial. Motions are considered by the court at a hearing.

A Notice of Hearing form sets the day and time for the hearing on your motion.

Filing a motion

In order to schedule your hearing, you need to file a motion that tells the court and the other parties what the purpose of the hearing is along with other documents. File these documents with the court clerk:

  1. Motion - this form is used to explain why you are asking for a hearing
  2. Notice of Hearing - this form is used to schedule the hearing date and time
  3. (Proposed) Order - this form is filled out in the way you would like the judge to sign it
  4. Declaration - this optional form provides a way to give more information to support your motion

Washington state's official mandatory pattern forms for family law cases are on the State Court website. These forms include a blank Motion for Order (FL All Family 181), Order (FL All Family 182), Notice of Hearing (FL All Family 185), and Declaration (FL All Family 135). These can be modified for use in other types of cases.

The court clerk can provide the date and time of your hearing when you file your documents.

All documents need to be served on the other party and proof of service must be completed and filed at the Clerk's Office. For additional information about service, see the serving court documents page.

Responding to a motion

If you get served with a motion, you can file a written response and serve that to the other parties. Because there are many possible motions, there may be specific information about how to respond to the type you received, or you may need to rely on more general information and then customize things for your case.

Washington LawHelp has general information and forms about responding to motions:

In family law cases, if the other party files a motion for temporary or immediate orders, there are checklists that tell you how to respond:

Continuances

If the other party sets a hearing date and you need more time to prepare for the hearing you may ask for a continuance. This is a request to the court to reschedule the hearing date and requires a good reason.

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Chapters 4 and 7 pertain to pretrial proceedings and pretrial motions

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