A divorce decree may resolve custody, child support, and spousal maintenance, but circumstances can change. A new job, different financial needs, or changes affecting a child may raise the question of whether an existing order should change too.
There is no single Minnesota standard for modifying every part of a decree. Custody, child support, and spousal maintenance each follow different rules. Our Minnesota family law practice helps Lake Elmo families determine which standard applies to a post-decree change.
Custody: First Ask Whether You Can Request a Change
Custody modifications have specific timing restrictions. Unless the parents agree in writing, a motion to modify custody or a parenting plan generally cannot be filed during the first year after the relevant decree or order.
If a previous modification motion was heard on its merits, another generally cannot be filed for two years. Exceptions can apply when there is persistent and willful interference with parenting time or reason to believe the child’s current environment may endanger the child’s physical or emotional health or development.
Being Able to File Does Not Mean Custody Will Change
The court considers whether circumstances have changed since the prior order, or whether relevant facts were previously unknown, and whether modification is necessary to serve the child’s best interests. Best interests refers to the statutory factors Minnesota courts use to evaluate a child’s needs and circumstances.
Minnesota generally keeps the existing custody arrangement in place unless an additional legal basis for changing it applies. These can include:
- Both parents agreeing to the modification.
- The child becoming integrated into the requesting parent’s family with the other parent’s consent.
- The child’s current environment endangering the child’s health or development, with the benefit of a change outweighing the likely harm.
- The primary custodial parent moving out of Minnesota after the court denied permission to relocate the child to another state.
The important distinction is that permission to file a motion and the legal grounds for changing custody are not necessarily the same question.
Child Support: The Focus Shifts to Finances
Child support follows a different framework. Minnesota law allows an order to be modified when a substantial change makes the existing terms unreasonable and unfair. Changes in income, financial need, a child’s needs, medical support, or child-care expenses may be relevant.
Where the 20% and $75 Rule Fits In
If applying the current child support guidelines would produce an amount at least 20% and $75 per month higher or lower than the existing order, Minnesota law creates a rebuttable presumption that circumstances have substantially changed and the current order is unreasonable and unfair. A rebuttable presumption is a legal assumption that applies unless evidence establishes otherwise.
A separate rule applies to existing orders below $75 per month, so this calculation is not the only way support can qualify for modification.
A modification generally cannot take effect before the motion is served on the other party, subject to statutory exceptions. Waiting to address a significant change can therefore affect when a modified amount begins.
Spousal Maintenance Has Different Rules
Spousal maintenance, sometimes called alimony, is financial support one former spouse may be ordered to pay the other after divorce. An existing order may be modified when substantially changed income or financial need, or qualifying tax-law changes, make its terms unreasonable and unfair.
Cohabitation and Remarriage Are Not the Same
Cohabitation, or living with another adult in a romantic relationship, may support a request to reduce, suspend, reserve, or terminate maintenance. The court considers statutory factors rather than automatically changing maintenance because the recipient shares a home with someone else.
Remarriage is different. Unless the parties agreed otherwise in writing or the decree provides otherwise, future maintenance generally terminates when the recipient remarries.
Some Agreements Limit Future Modification
Spouses can enter an agreement that precludes or limits future maintenance modification if Minnesota’s legal requirements are satisfied. If your decree contains such a provision, it should be reviewed before assuming maintenance can be changed.
Before Asking a Lake Elmo Court to Change an Order
The key question is not simply whether life has changed. It is whether the change satisfies the rules governing the part of the decree you want modified.
Before pursuing a modification, identify:
- What needs to change: custody, parenting time, child support, maintenance, or multiple provisions.
- Whether timing restrictions apply.
- What circumstances have changed since the existing order.
- What evidence supports that change.
- Whether the other party agrees and what the current decree already provides.
An attorney can review the order and determine which modification standard applies. A lawyer can also identify the facts and documentation relevant to the particular request.
Coodin Law Office, LLC is a Lake Elmo law office serving individuals and families in Woodbury, Washington County, and surrounding Minnesota communities. If circumstances have changed since your divorce or custody order was entered, contact our law office to discuss whether Minnesota law allows the order to be modified.