FAMILY LAW SERVICES
Your matters of the heart matter to us.
Cassity B. Gies is an experienced family law attorney who understands that the litigation of family law matters impacts the most personal and important parts of someone’s life. She approaches each case with empathy, discernment, and a commitment to protecting her clients’ best interests – always.
Cassity strives to resolve conflict by amicable means whenever possible because she understands the interplays of personal peace and family law. Designing case strategies with a dual focus on the factual issues and an appreciation for each family’s intrinsic wellbeing helps clients maintain composure and confidence during stressful times. However, when litigation is necessary, she is a fierce advocate in the courtroom, fighting relentlessly for her client’s rights and safeguarding the wellbeing of any children involved.
Family Law Services
ADOPTION
CHILD CUSTODY
CHILD SUPPORT MODIFICATIONS
DIVORCE
DIVORCE MODIFICATIONS
GUARDIANSHIPS
JUVENILE DELINQUENCY
PARENTAL RIGHTS
PATERNITY
PRENUPTUAL AGREEMENTS
VICTIM PROTECTIVE ORDERS
Adoption
The joy of adding to your family through adoption often comes after or alongside what has been a long and winding road. Every parent and child’s “gotcha” story is uniquely complicated and simple all at the same time. Ultimately, the legal process of adoption can be similarly complicated as you pursue an otherwise simple desire: to legally define your family in the same terms that your heart already does.
Custody
If children are our future, then nothing is more important to the world at large than making sure they are safe, happy, and surrounded by people who will love and protect them. Because every family and situation is different, we design custody plans to foster co-parenting and peace. A well-done custodial order can prevent future challenges that almost always end up adversely affecting the kids.
Custody, Visitation, or Child Support Modification:
Unlike an initial order entered as part of a Divorce Decree, modifying custody requires the parent to establish certain grounds have arose to warrant modification. The burden of proving that an order should be modified differs depending on the issue at hand. Every legal approach to modification should be based upon the foundation of preserving or increasing peace with your child’s co-parent whenever possible. So often parents (often through their lawyers) jump to positions that end up eroding or cutting off opportunities that would have benefited both parents. Haughty decision making and a lack of insight into the importance of peaceful co-parenting can tear families apart rather than ensure that they are prospering. At the same time, part of being a parent requires that we never acquiesce on standards of care that are unquestionably necessary to make sure that we are raising safe and happy children.
Divorce
Divorce requires you to navigate consequential decisions that will affect the quality of your life for the remainder of your life. It’s an opportunity to redesign your life and step into new beginnings. While tolerating and enduring some of the most painful emotional experiences in your life, you will also make numerous decisions that will impact the quality of your life in every way. Navigating the legal process and understanding your personal priorities and positions requires a nuance for balancing what the client values intrinsically while at the same time identifying what will be necessary to set them up in the strongest financial position possible.
Guardianships
When it becomes necessary to contemplate whether a child or adult is in need of intervening care in the way of a guardianship, clients should be counseled in the various considerations at hand and what outcome would best serve the situation at hand.
Juvenile Delinquency
Part of growing up includes learning from experiences. When your child is learning a lesson that has landed them in front of the juvenile court system, most parents have never faced the need to understand the juvenile legal system and advocate for their child. Practicing juvenile law is a horse of a different color and should ensure that while you’re putting a child back in the saddle, he or she or they are learning and growing from the experience. Parenting is not for the faint of heart and neither is the practice of children’s law.
Parental Rights
Sometimes life requires that you and your family understand the consequences and implications that accompany the decisions you make regarding your child’s care, education, or health and best interests. If the state initiates an investigation into allegations of abuse or neglect in your home, this may result in DHS involvement which affects your parentage pursuant to the state’s Children’s Code. The situation can have many outcomes depending on the circumstances . Understanding the options available to you as a parent will ensure that you are fully informed and fully represented if it becomes necessary to answer inquiries into your parental fitness.
Paternity
If the parents were unmarried when a child is born, regardless of what a birth certificate says, paternity can only be adjudicated by the legal system. To protect the rights of both parties equally, unmarried parents should pursue a paternity decree establishing parentage and an accompanying custody plan. Paternity actions can be initiated by either party and often involve collaboration of parents who have been effectively co-parenting for years without court intervention. Other times, paternity actions are necessary to make sure that the parent without presumed parentage (usually the father) is not alienated from the child due to their lack of legal standing.
Prenuptial Agreements
A well done pre-nup can save you more than time and money, it can save you the emotional turmoil that accompanies the uncertainty of divorce. The stress and strife that this can save both parties cannot be undervalued. In order for a prenup to control the division of the marital estate, it will have to be legally valid. If your agreement fails to meet certain legal requirements, you may find yourself in litigation to “bust the prenup.” A good pre-nup will incorporate terms and conditions that benefit your client financially, legally, and emotionally so that they can rely on it when needed.
Victim Protective Orders
Oklahoma has high rates of domestic violence and intimate partner abuse. If a situation feels unsafe to you, you may need the court to grant a Victims Protective Order or a Restraining Order. On the other hand, if a protective order has been filed against you improperly, you will need to clear the air and get the facts of your case in front of the Court so that an accuser cannot make false claims against you.
