Rule 364.Hearing Process

Rule 364 starts from a default in the party's favor: every party has a right to a hearing unless some other rule says otherwise. Once a written answer or a request for a hearing comes in, the initiating party is responsible for getting a hearing date from the court administrator and serving notice of the date, time, and location on everyone, including the county agency, at least 14 days before the hearing happens. Timing then runs on its own schedule: a hearing cannot happen sooner than 21 days after the summons and complaint, or the motion, was served, unless the parties waive that waiting period, and the rule pushes everyone to hold the hearing within 60 days of service, or within 60 days of receiving genetic test results in a parentage case, though missing that 60-day target does not strip the magistrate of authority to act; it is a goal the process is built around, not a deadline that voids the case.

A hearing can still be delayed by agreement of the parties or a showing of good cause, weighed against the requesting party's ability to proceed effectively without one. Rule 364.05 sets only that standard itself; the drafting history illustrates it with examples such as a party's or attorney's death or incapacitating illness, a late substitution of counsel, or an agreed need for more time as likely good cause, and a lawyer's own scheduling conflict with a case already known about, or a witness who could testify by deposition instead, as likely not.

Once a hearing is underway, the child support magistrate runs it. The magistrate must explain the purpose of the hearing and how it will proceed at the very start, keep the hearing open to the public unless there is good cause to close it, and take charge of making sure a clear and accurate record of everything that happens gets made.

The rule also lays out the evidentiary core of a hearing, in the seven subdivisions that follow. Each party may present evidence, rebuttal testimony, and argument, whether through documents, narrative or question-and-answer testimony, or a sworn affidavit offered instead of live testimony, and everyone must submit copies of what they intend to offer at least 7 days beforehand. The child support magistrate can admit hearsay and any other evidence with real probative value, may take judicial notice of undisputed facts on the record, and may ask witnesses questions when needed to round out the findings. The party proposing that some action be taken carries the burden of proving it by a preponderance of the evidence, each side can call and cross-examine an adverse party or that party's witnesses, and the magistrate may leave the record open for up to 14 days after the hearing for additional submissions before the record closes and a decision follows.