Cases and phases
In Onus Curae every family proceeding is a case. A case has one or more phases: each phase describes a period with its own reference date (first separation, change of income, new care plan).
Custodial parent. What counts is where the child is domiciled, whatever the type of custody.
In the calculation P2 is the parent with whom the children are domiciled and P1 the other parent.
Art. 298 and
Art. 301a CC.
New case
Family name *
Free text that identifies the case in the list and in the PDFs, e.g. Smith / Jones or an internal file number of the firm.
The system also assigns a technical reference
OC-YEAR-NNNN, which cannot be changed.
Reference date *
The date as at which the calculation is made. It determines the children's ages and which version of the tables and parameters applies.
Changing it after entering data can change the result.
Legal basis: Art. 285 CC.
Canton *
The family's main canton of residence.
Language
Default language of the case PDFs. It is independent of the interface language;
when downloading a PDF another language can be chosen.
Case manager (collaborator)
Visible only to firms with collaborators. The chosen collaborator receives the case communications.
If the field is left empty, the case is handled directly by the person who created it.
Married and dates
Married yes/no, start of cohabitation, date of marriage (only if married), date of separation and of divorce.
Marital status determines whether spousal maintenance is calculated.
Children *
First name and date of birth of each child; at least one child is required.
Once the result is unlocked, the family name and the children can no longer be changed; dates, canton and language can.
On saving, the system creates the case, records the children and opens Phase 1 as a draft. Whoever creates the case becomes its owner.
Life cycle of a phase
Draft
Every phase starts as a draft. All tabs can be edited. The result stays hidden until the case is paid for.
Result unlocked
The owner pays once per case from the wallet. From then on the result and the PDFs are visible in all phases,
new phases can be created and the General tab becomes read-only
(to change it, a reasoned request is sent to support from the tab itself).
Close phase
Saves the state of the calculation as a historical version of the phase and makes the PDFs certified (QR code and SHA-256 hash).
The Parent data, Child data, Previous families and Care plan tabs remain editable.
With Unlock phase the phase is reopened and the certified PDF is deleted.
Seal with judgment
Used when an authority or a court has decided. The judgment can be attached (optional).
Sealing is permanent: all tabs of the phase become unchangeable. Other phases are not affected.
New phase
Available once the result is unlocked, at no extra cost. You state the event that justifies the new phase
and the end of the previous phase. The new phase inherits all data: only the tabs that change are edited.
A new phase is also needed when a child turns 18: what counts is the age at the reference date, and from that phase the child's
maintenance follows the rules for adult children (PRO tab, Adult children in education).
Legal basis: Art. 286 CC
(change of maintenance because of new facts).
Archive
Possible when at least one phase is closed and no phase is still open. Archiving deletes no data:
the case can still be viewed using the list filter.
Tabs of a phase
In the order of the bar: General · Care plan · Parent data · Child data · Previous families (if enabled) · PRO (if enabled for the case) · Result · Attachments (📎 icon). Each tab has its own page in this Help.
Members and invitations
Owner
The person who created the case. Invites and removes members and unlocks the result.
Co-owner
The partner in a self-managing family, added automatically to the first parent's cases.
Collaborator
Lawyer, adviser or mediator with full access. The cost of unlocking the result is split half and half with the owner.
Parent
Invited as P1 or P2. With limited access the parent enters only their own data in the Parent data and Child data tabs
and their own proposal in the Care plan, then clicks Send to operator.
With full access they see all the data of the case.
The owner can also create the parent's account directly and send them the activation link.
Observer
Authority or court: read-only access.
Inviting a member
Email address typed twice, role, optional personal message and a copy to yourself.
The invitation link is valid for 14 days. After sending, a window confirms the outcome.
Removing a member
Removal ends access but keeps the data already entered and the history.
If the member was a collaborator sharing costs, the reservations are recalculated.