In order to advise the Court that you wish to modify your current custody and child support order, you must file a Petition to Modify Custody and Support (“Petition”). If you are filing the Petition, you are the “Petitioner” regardless of whether you were the Plaintiff or the Defendant when the custody and child support order was first entered. The other party will be referred to as the “Respondent.”
**We have included examples of all of the forms you may need with some helpful hints at the bottom of this page.**
You will need to file the following forms with the Clerk of the District Court:
1. Petition - you will file this with the Clerk of District Court where the original custody and child support order was issued. You will need the case number from your original Order (it will be at the top of the form), or you can ask the Clerk for it.
- Delivering the Petition to the Clerk’s office is called filing a case. A filing fee is required. Call the Clerk of Court's office to find out what the amount of the filing fee is and what forms of payment are accepted.
- You will also need to attach a certified copy of your prior custody order to the Petition. The Clerk can assist you with obtaining a certified copy. There will be a charge for providing copies of your prior order.
2. Confidential Statement of the Parties for Child Support Order; and
3. Summons - the Clerk of Court will issue this.
Take the original and two (2) copies of each document to the Clerk’s office. The Clerk will give you copies of each document back after stamping them with the date they were filed. This is called a “file stamp.” You should keep one copy of each document for your records. The other set of documents will need to be served upon (given to) the Respondent.