ORS 107.138: Oregon Child Custody Status Quo Order Explained

An Oregon child custody status quo order is a court order under ORS 107.138 that freezes a child’s living arrangements and daily schedule while a parent’s request to modify an existing custody judgment is pending.¹ Once entered, neither parent may move the child, disrupt the routine, or interfere with the other parent’s usual contact until the court rules on the modification.

What the Order Locks in Place

A status quo order binds both parents equally, not only the one who asked for it. Six categories of conduct are prohibited:

Changing the child’s residence.
Disrupting the child’s daily schedule, placement, or routine.
Hiding the child’s location from the other parent.
Interfering with the other parent’s normal contact and parenting time.
Taking the child out of Oregon without the other parent’s written consent or the court’s permission.
Any other conduct that disturbs the child’s current routine while the modification motion is pending.

The order stays in effect until the court grants or denies the underlying modification request.¹

How the Court Decides What the Status Quo Actually Is

The statute uses a three-month lookback to fix the baseline. The child’s “usual place of residence” is the home where the child was living when the motion was filed and had been living continuously for the preceding three months.¹ Regular parenting time with the noncustodial parent does not interrupt that continuity. Every-other-weekend overnights at the other parent’s house still count toward three continuous months at the primary home.

The child’s daily schedule, current routine, and the other parent’s usual contact and parenting time are measured as of the filing date, not averaged over the lookback period. If parenting time shifted two weeks before you filed, the court looks at what was happening the day the motion went in. That snapshot is what gets frozen.

Filing the Motion

You file a written motion in the circuit court where the modification case is pending. It must be supported by a sworn affidavit or a declaration under penalty of perjury, and the statute requires specificity. Vague descriptions of the child’s life are a common reason motions fail.¹

The affidavit has to cover two things. First, the information required by ORS 109.767: the child’s current address, every place the child has lived during the past five years, who the child lived with at each address, and whether you know of any other custody proceedings involving the child in any court.² Second, who the child has lived with during the preceding year, plus the current schedule, daily routine, and usual residence. Missing information can freeze the whole proceeding until you supply it.

If putting your address or the child’s location in a court filing would endanger either of you, ask the court to seal that information. ORS 109.767 lets a parent allege that health, safety, or liberty would be jeopardized by disclosure, and the court holds a hearing to decide whether to keep it confidential.² This matters in cases involving domestic violence.

Notice, Service, and the 21-Day Hearing

ORS 107.138 does not allow an ex parte order. The other parent must be served and given at least 21 days’ notice before the hearing.¹ Service follows Oregon’s formal rules, which usually means hiring a process server or using the county sheriff. You cannot serve the papers yourself.

The hearing has one job. The judge decides what the child’s residence and routine looked like on the day the motion was filed, and if those facts match the affidavit, the order is entered. Arguments about which parent is the better caregiver, what would be best for the child going forward, or how the relationship broke down are not what this hearing is for. Those come later, in the modification case itself.

Taking the Child Out of State

The out-of-state travel ban is one of the most litigated pieces of a status quo order. Oregon courts have custody jurisdiction when the state qualifies as the child’s “home state,” meaning the child has lived here with a parent for at least six consecutive months before the proceeding began.³ A parent who leaves Oregon with the child during a pending case risks more than contempt. The move can create jurisdictional problems under the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act and may pull the case into another state’s courts.

If you need to travel out of state temporarily, get written permission from the other parent, or file a motion asking the court to authorize the trip, before you go. Sorting it out afterward is a fast route to a contempt hearing.

What Happens if a Parent Violates the Order

A violation is contempt of court, and the penalties depend on whether the court treats the contempt as remedial (meant to force compliance) or punitive (punishment for what already happened).

Remedial contempt can produce monetary compensation to cover the other parent’s losses, costs, or injury; daily fines up to $500 or one percent of the violating parent’s annual gross income per day, whichever is greater, for as long as the contempt continues; confinement until the parent complies or for up to six months, whichever comes first; and an order to pay the other parent’s attorney fees.

Punitive contempt can produce a fine up to $500 or one percent of annual gross income per violation, up to six months in jail, community service, or forfeiture of profits gained through the violation.⁴ On top of the direct penalties, a parent who moved the child or cut off parenting time in violation of the order hands the other side a strong argument at the final custody hearing.

Divorce and Initial Custody Cases Use a Different Statute

ORS 107.138 applies when a parent is trying to modify an existing custody judgment. If your case is a divorce, legal separation, or an initial custody petition where no custody order has been entered yet, you need ORS 107.097 instead. A pre-judgment status quo order can be requested on an ex parte basis, which means the court can sign it before the other parent is heard, and the other parent then gets a chance to challenge it. The Oregon Judicial Department publishes a dedicated forms packet for that process.⁵ The practical effect is the same, freezing the child’s life in place, but the procedure to get there is not.

Documenting the Status Quo Well

The strength of your motion depends on how clearly your affidavit shows the child’s established routine. A judge cannot freeze a schedule that cannot be identified from the paperwork. Start pulling records together before you file.

Useful evidence includes calendars showing which parent had the child on specific dates, text messages or emails confirming pickups and drop-offs, school enrollment records tying the child to a particular address, and any written parenting plan already in use. Daycare attendance records and consistent sign-ins for recurring activities from the same home address help prove continuity across the three-month lookback.

The most common reason a court declines to enter a status quo order is an affidavit that reads like an argument. Stick to dates, times, and locations. The hearing exists to establish what the child’s life actually looked like on the day the motion was filed, nothing more.

1
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Revised Statutes 107.138 – Temporary Status Quo Order Regarding Child Custody
2
Oregon Public Defense Commission. Oregon Revised Statutes 109.767 – Information to Be Submitted to Court
3
Oregon Public Law. Oregon Revised Statutes 109.741 – Initial Child Custody Jurisdiction
4
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Revised Statutes 33.105 – Sanctions Authorized
5
Oregon Judicial Department. Instructions – Status Quo – Pre-Judgment Packet