25-407. Legal decision-making and parenting time hearings; priority; costs; record

A. Legal decision-making and parenting time proceedings shall receive priority in being set for hearing. If a party to a legal decision-making or parenting time action files a motion for temporary orders in any pre-decree matter, the court shall hold an evidentiary hearing within sixty days after the party files the motion unless:

1. The filing party waives the requirement for a hearing to be conducted within sixty days after the party files the motion.

2. Temporary orders are established through a separate conference or hearing within sixty days after the party files the motion.

3. Extraordinary circumstances exist and the court is not able to schedule the hearing. If the court is not able to schedule the hearing within sixty days after the motion is filed, it must make a written finding on the record as to the cause of the delay.

B. Subsection A of this section does not preclude any other conference or hearing.

C. The court may charge as costs the payment of necessary travel and other expenses incurred by any person whose presence at the hearing the court deems necessary to determine the best interest of the child.

D. The court, without a jury, shall determine questions of law and fact. If it finds that a public hearing may be detrimental to the child's best interest, the court may exclude the public from a custody hearing, but may admit any person who has a direct and legitimate interest in the particular case or a legitimate educational or research interest in the work of the court.

E. If the court finds that to protect the child's welfare, the record of any interview, report, investigation or testimony in a legal decision-making or parenting time proceeding should be kept secret, the court may then make an appropriate order sealing the record.