Cheney, southwest of Spokane and home to Eastern Washington University, is a community of long-time residents, university employees, and students. Schwab Law helps Cheney families with divorce, parenting plans, child support, and the rest of the family law spectrum.
How we help Cheney families
Cheney cases run the full range — from long marriages between people who have lived here for decades, to short marriages among younger couples connected to the university, which raise very different questions about property and maintenance.
Does a short marriage change how a divorce is decided?
Duration matters enormously in Washington. In a short marriage, courts generally aim to put each spouse roughly back where they started, separate property tends to stay separate, and spousal maintenance is uncommon. In a long marriage, the analysis shifts toward comparable economic positions afterward, and maintenance becomes a serious question.
For couples connected to EWU, two issues come up repeatedly: student loan debt taken on during the marriage, and whether one spouse worked to support the other through a degree. Neither has a mechanical answer, but both are worth raising rather than assuming they will be ignored.
What family law matters does Schwab Law handle in Cheney?
- Divorce and legal separation, including short-marriage cases
- Parenting plans and residential schedules
- Child support and spousal maintenance
- Property division, including separate property brought into the marriage
- Committed intimate relationship claims for unmarried couples
- Modifications and relocation cases
Where is a Cheney family law case heard?
Family law cases from every community in Spokane County are filed in Spokane County Superior Court in downtown Spokane, so the court, the commissioners, and the local rules are the same wherever in the county you live. Misdemeanor matters are handled in district or municipal court depending on where the citation was issued.
Cheney residents travel into Spokane for contested hearings. We schedule around that where possible and keep the routine parts of a case — drafting, negotiation, and document exchange — off your calendar entirely.
Questions from Cheney clients
We were only married a couple of years. Is that different?
Yes, meaningfully. Short marriages generally produce a division aimed at restoring each spouse to their pre-marital position, and spousal maintenance is far less common than after a long marriage.
I moved to Cheney recently for school. Can I file here?
Washington has no minimum length-of-residency requirement — you need to be a resident when the petition is filed. Where children are involved, though, which state has jurisdiction over the parenting plan is a separate question worth reviewing.