Post-Decree Modifications & Enforcement
Your life changed. Your order can too.
The order you signed was built around the life you had then—the job, the schedule, the distance between two homes. When that life changes and the order doesn't, you can feel stuck with a document that no longer fits. It doesn't have to stay that way.
A confidential conversation. No commitment, no pressure.
When the Order No Longer Fits
A court order reflects one moment in time. People keep living after that moment.
A parent loses a job, or finally lands the raise. A child's needs shift as they get older. One parent wants to move for work or family. The parenting schedule that made sense when the kids were small stops making sense in middle school. Or the harder version: the other parent simply stops following the order—support goes unpaid, parenting time gets denied, and the document you fought for sits on a shelf while your life gets harder.
If any of that sounds familiar, you are not asking for something unreasonable. You are asking the law to keep up with reality. That is exactly what post-decree modification and enforcement exist to do.
What Kentucky Law Allows You to Change
The honest landscape—what's modifiable, and on what standard.
Every situation turns on its own facts, and the standards below are general.
Child support.
— May be modified on a material change in circumstances—commonly framed as one that would produce at least a 15% change in the guideline amount. Job loss, significant raises, or a change in custody or parenting time are the usual triggers.
Custody.
— Modifications within two years of the original decree generally require a serious endangerment showing or a finding that the child has been integrated into the family of the petitioner with the other parent's consent. After two years, the standard is best interest of the child plus a change in circumstances.
Timesharing / parenting schedules.
— These can typically be modified on a best-interest showing without the same threshold required to change legal custody.
Maintenance (spousal support).
— May be modified on a showing of changed circumstances so substantial and continuing as to make the terms unconscionable—unless the original agreement expressly precludes modification.
Enforcement.
— When the order isn't being followed, the court has tools: wage assignment, contempt actions, makeup parenting time, attorney fees, and judgments for arrearages. The point is the same—make the order real.
How We Handle It
Through the court that has authority over your case—the right way, not the loud way.
Bring what you have. We'll tell you honestly whether the facts meet the standard and what a realistic outcome looks like.
Modification, enforcement, or both—with the documentation the court needs to act on it.
No silence. You'll know when filings go in, when hearings are set, and what to do at each step.
What Now
Stop living around an order that no longer fits.
A confidential conversation about what can change, and how.