Preparing a motion in a Rhode Island divorce is simply a matter of following a general formula of items the court and judge will be looking for so that it can be recognized as a motion, identified with the correct case, notified everyone of what you are looking for, and why, and tell the court judge that the opposing party has received notice of ownership.

1. The first element is a basic header. Include the name of the state, county, and court where the matter is pending. In Providence Family Court family court, the typical header would appear at the top of your motion and would look like this:

RHODE ISLAND STATE FAMILY COURT

PROVIDENCE, South Carolina

Note that the header is in CAPITAL letters with the state and county aligned to the left margin and the name of the court aligned to the right column. The SC after the county name stands for Sheriff’s County. In some cases, you may see SS or SS. used, which is the older colloquialism for Sheriff’s Shire.

2. The second element that appears below the basic header is the case title. The case title contains the plaintiff’s names above the defendant’s name, as well as the case number assigned by the court. The case title would appear as follows:

JOHNATHAN SMITH

against BOX NUMBER P08-0086

MARY SMITH

Note that the case number is usually placed from the center of the writing towards the right margin.

3. The third and simplest element is the title of the motion which is written in CAPITAL letters, centered and often underlined. For example, a motion to modify child support would appear as follows:

MOTION TO MODIFY CHILD SUPPORT

4. The fourth element of a Rhode Island Divorce or Family Court motion is the body of the motion which includes your request for relief and the basic reasons why relief should be granted. The typical body of this motion can be in standard type and paragraph form as follows:

Now comes the plaintiff, Johnathan Smith, and asks this court for an order modifying his child support obligation in this matter.

In support of this motion, Plaintiff asserts that there has been a material change in the parties’ circumstances and/or income since the child support obligation was last established.

5. The fifth element is the closing of the motion which contains the names of the parties and the name, address, and telephone number of the party or the party’s attorney. It also contains the hearing date for the motion to be obtained from the clerk of the judge who will hear the motion. It would appear as follows if Johnathan was representing himself (Pro Se)

JOHNATHAN SMITH

PRO SE

________________________

john smith

Chimney Avenue, 15

Coventry, Rhode Island 02819

(401) 467-2392

6. The last element is the certification. If this is an initial motion and the case has been closed or inactive (with no scheduled pending court date), then you will need to create a summons and have your spouse surrender as required by law. This is a topic beyond the publication of this short article. However, what I am referring to here is when a case is active and there is a pending court date on the case you are filing the motion on, then you must provide a certification that tells the court that you served the opposing party by mail. (or more appropriately their lawyer if they are represented by one). It appears below the closure and looks like this and must be signed by the person making the shipment (i.e. performing the service):

CERTIFICATION

I certify that on April 15, 2008 I delivered a copy of this motion by first class mail to Mary Smith at 88 Dupont Lane, Providence, RI 02903

_______________________________

For those who must represent themselves in family court, I hope this tutorial on drafting motions was helpful and that the formatting tools used to create this article didn’t make it seem too disjointed.