Build a Parenting Plan From Client Intake

Convert client intake details into a draft parenting plan covering legal decision-making, parenting time, holiday allocation, and communication protocols, then tailor it to your state and summarize it for the client.

The Workflow

1. 1

   Give Claude the family's facts

   Open one Claude conversation and lay out the intake in a single structured message. The more specific you are about ages, work schedules, geography, and conflict level, the less generic the draft. Keep this conversation open for every step that follows so Claude retains the full context.

   PromptCopy

   You are helping a family-law attorney draft a parenting plan. I will give you the intake facts; you will help me build the plan over several steps. Do not file or finalize anything — every output is a first draft I will verify against state law.
   
   Here are the facts for this matter:
   - Jurisdiction (state/county): [STATE / COUNTY]
   - Parents: [PARENT A NAME/ROLE] and [PARENT B NAME/ROLE]
   - Children (initials + ages only): [E.G., "J.M., age 7; L.M., age 4"]
   - Current custody arrangement: [DESCRIBE]
   - Each parent's custody goal: [PARENT A GOAL] / [PARENT B GOAL]
   - Work/school schedules: [DESCRIBE WEEKLY HOURS, SHIFTS, COMMUTE]
   - Distance between homes: [E.G., 15 MINUTES; OR 200 MILES]
   - Decision-making preferences (education, medical, religion, extracurriculars): [DESCRIBE]
   - Conflict/safety level: [LOW / MODERATE / HIGH — NOTE ANY DV, SUBSTANCE, OR SAFETY CONCERNS]
   - Special needs or considerations: [DESCRIBE OR "NONE"]
   
   Confirm you have these facts and ask me up to 3 clarifying questions before we draft.

   What you get: Claude confirms the facts and asks a few targeted clarifying questions (often about the exact custody split sought, the children's school calendar, or the nature of any safety concerns) before drafting.

2. 2

   Draft the core parenting plan

   Once the facts are settled, have Claude produce the full skeleton: legal decision-making, a concrete parenting-time schedule, holiday and school-break allocation, and communication protocols between the parents. Ask for a regular weekly schedule expressed as something you can drop into a calendar.

   PromptCopy

   Using the facts above, draft a complete parenting plan with these sections, numbered:
   
   1. Legal decision-making — allocate authority over education, medical/dental, religion, and extracurriculars (sole vs. joint per the facts), and state how disagreements are resolved.
   2. Parenting time — a specific regular weekly schedule (name the days and exchange times) that fits both parents' work schedules and the distance between homes.
   3. Holiday and school-break schedule — allocate major holidays, three-day weekends, school breaks, and each child's birthday, alternating by even/odd year where appropriate.
   4. Summer/vacation — vacation time, travel notice, and out-of-state/out-of-country travel terms.
   5. Exchanges and transportation — location, who transports, and handling of lateness.
   6. Communication protocols — how the parents communicate about the children, expected response times, and how each parent contacts the children when in the other's care.
   
   Write in clear, court-ready clause language. Flag in [BRACKETS] any place where my state's statute likely requires specific language or a specific factor I should confirm.

   What you get: A structured, numbered draft plan with a concrete weekly schedule, holiday grid, and communication terms, plus bracketed flags marking where state-specific statutory language or factors need to be confirmed.

3. 3

   Add high-conflict and safety provisions

   If the intake flagged moderate or high conflict, domestic violence, substance concerns, or safety issues, layer in the protective terms a standard plan omits. Skip or trim this step for genuinely low-conflict, cooperative co-parents — over-drafting protective terms into an amicable plan can inflame it.

   PromptCopy

   This matter has [MODERATE / HIGH] conflict with the following concerns: [LIST CONCERNS — E.G., HISTORY OF DV, ALCOHOL USE DURING PARENTING TIME, ONE PARENT WITHHOLDING THE CHILDREN].
   
   Add a set of high-conflict / safety provisions to the plan, drawing only on what the facts support:
   - Supervised or therapeutic visitation terms (who supervises, where, how it steps down over time) if warranted.
   - Communication restrictions — e.g., a court-approved co-parenting app for all contact, no contact except about the children, no disparagement.
   - Safety terms — sobriety expectations and any testing, no third parties present during exchanges, neutral/public exchange locations, no firearms accessible to the children.
   - A right of first refusal and a clear protocol for missed or late exchanges.
   - A graduated dispute-resolution clause (co-parenting counseling or a parenting coordinator before court) consistent with the conflict level.
   
   Keep each provision narrowly tailored to the stated facts. Flag in [BRACKETS] any provision that typically requires a specific court finding or order in my state.

   What you get: A set of tailored protective clauses (supervision step-downs, app-only communication, sobriety/exchange-safety terms, right of first refusal, graduated dispute resolution), each tied to the stated facts and flagged where a court finding may be required.

4. 4

   Tailor to state law and write a client summary

   Direct Claude to localize the draft to your jurisdiction and then translate it for the client. The plain-English summary helps the client actually understand what they are agreeing to and surfaces questions before you finalize.

   PromptCopy

   Two tasks for the [STATE] version of this plan:
   
   1. State-law tailoring: Revise the draft to use [STATE]'s standard terminology (e.g., the state's terms for custody/parenting time), insert placeholders for any statutorily required language, and add a checklist of [STATE]-specific items I must verify before filing — best-interests factors, relocation/move-away notice requirements, required statutory notices, and any mandatory clauses. Do not assert a specific statute or rule number unless you are certain; otherwise mark it for me to confirm.
   
   2. Client summary: Write a one-page plain-English summary of the plan for the client — no legalese — covering who decides what, the week-to-week schedule, how holidays work, and the ground rules for communication, ending with a short list of questions for the client to consider.

   What you get: A state-localized draft using local terminology with a jurisdiction-specific verification checklist, plus a clean one-page plain-English client summary ending in client-facing questions. Treat the statutory items as prompts to confirm, not authority.

5. 5

   Review, verify, and finalize

   Read the full draft as the responsible attorney. Confirm the schedule is internally consistent (no holiday that overlaps and contradicts the regular schedule), check every bracketed flag against your state's statute and current case law, and verify the plan reflects the client's actual goals and the children's best interests. Independently confirm any statute, rule, or deadline Claude referenced before relying on it.

   What you get: A verified, state-compliant draft parenting plan and client summary, ready for your edits and client review — with every bracketed flag resolved and all legal citations independently confirmed.

Example Output

Illustrative example — names, facts, and figures are fictional.

DRAFT PARENTING PLAN — IN RE: THE CHILDREN OF A.R. AND M.R. (ILLUSTRATIVE / FICTIONAL)

1. LEGAL DECISION-MAKING
The parents shall share joint legal decision-making for J.R. (age 7) and L.R. (age 4) on education, non-emergency medical, and religious upbringing. Mother shall have final decision-making authority on extracurricular activities. In an emergency, either parent may consent to necessary medical care and shall notify the other within [2 hours].

2. PARENTING TIME (REGULAR SCHEDULE)
The children shall reside primarily with Mother. Father shall have parenting time on alternating weekends (Friday 5:00 p.m. to Sunday 6:00 p.m.) and every Wednesday (after school to 7:30 p.m.). Exchanges occur at the children's school or, when school is not in session, at the [public location].

3. HOLIDAYS
Holidays alternate by year (Mother even years, Father odd). Thanksgiving and winter break are split at [midpoint]. Each child spends their birthday with the parent then scheduled, with a 2-hour visit for the other parent. Mother's Day with Mother; Father's Day with Father.

4. COMMUNICATION
The parents shall communicate about the children exclusively through [a co-parenting app] and respond within 24 hours on non-urgent matters. Each parent may have a reasonable phone/video call with the children once per day while in the other's care.

5. SAFETY PROVISIONS [HIGH-CONFLICT]
Neither parent shall consume alcohol within 8 hours of or during parenting time. All exchanges occur in a public location with no third parties present. Neither parent shall disparage the other in the children's presence. [Confirm whether a court finding is required for the sobriety term in this state.]

[ATTORNEY NOTE: Verify against state best-interests factors and the relocation-notice statute before filing. This is a first draft.]

Tips

• •Front-load the intake. The single biggest driver of draft quality is the specificity of your facts — ages, exact work hours, distance between homes, and an honest conflict level. Vague inputs produce a generic plan you will rewrite anyway.
• •Keep it to one conversation. Run all the steps in the same chat so Claude carries the family's facts forward; starting fresh for the summary or the safety provisions forces you to re-explain everything.
• •Treat every bracketed flag as a task, not a suggestion. Claude marks where state law likely controls — the best-interests factors, relocation notice, mandatory clauses — but you must open the statute and confirm. Never file on Claude's word about a rule number.
• •Match the protective terms to the temperature of the case. Layering supervised-visitation and no-contact language into a cooperative co-parenting plan can manufacture conflict; reserve the safety section for facts that genuinely support it.

Prompts used in this workflow

Related Reading

• Claude AI for Family Law: Custody, Divorce & Mediation
• Family Law Practice
• Claude AI for Mediation & ADR