Rule 106.Modification of final domestic relations order

A divorce decree or custody order isn't necessarily the end of the story — circumstances change, and Rule 106 governs how a party goes back to court to change it. The process starts with a petition to modify, served along with a summons under Rule 4, and the responding party answers within the time set by Rule 12. The existing order doesn't disappear the moment someone files a petition to modify it: it stays in effect while the petition is pending, though the court can make any eventual modification retroactive to the date the petition was served.

The rule also gives the court room to act before the petition is fully resolved. While the case is pending, the court can enter a temporary modification of child support tied to a temporary change in custody or parent-time, and it can temporarily modify custody or parent-time to address immediate and irreparable harm or to formally ratify changes the parties have already made on their own — as long as the change serves the child's best interests. None of this limits the court's separate authority to enter temporary orders in the underlying domestic relations case. The rule was amended effective May 1, 2026 to update its statutory cross-references following a recodification of the domestic relations code, without changing how the modification process itself works.