Family Court Lessons to be Learned from Prince
As we all know, Prince died last year. He died without a will, and the battle over his estate wages on in Carver County District Court. As we’ve also learned,…
WHEN SCIENCE IS NOT ENOUGH; MAKING THE CASE FOR PATERNITY IN MINNESOTA
If you’ve ever wondered how a father can ‘prove’ he is dad, you wouldn’t be wrong in assuming that a genetic test, or a ‘paternity test’ is the way to…
THE COST OF INACTION – CHILD CUSTODY MODIFICATION BY ACQUIESCENCE
Remember when our parents warned us not to make goofy faces lest they get stuck that way? Sadly, this kind of, sort of, happened recently when a parent failed to…
MARATHON RUNNING & THE PRESUMPTION OF JOINT LEGAL CUSTODY
Not quite ‘Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Mechanics’, but, I recently came to a revelation. This past Sunday I (very slowly) ran the Twin Cities Marathon. One of the…
Temperament and Public Service
If you’ve listened to recent discussion about the presidential election, you may have heard the issue of ‘temperament’ come up. One of the candidates recently questioned the other’s ‘temperamant’ and…
Getting a Domestic Abuse Order for Protection in Minnesota – What Do I Need To Prove?
I hope this is a question you will never face, but, leaving an abusive partner or family member is not an simple decision, let alone following through with that decision….
Minnesota Cohabitation and Spousal Maintenance: The Law Has Changed
The law has long been that unless agreed otherwise in a divorce decree, if a spousal maintenance recipient remarries, the remarriage terminates the spousal maintenance award. The rationale, based largely…
Can I Afford To Be Divorced in Minnesota?
What will I do if I can’t rely on my spouse’s earnings to meet my living expenses? Good question; and one that any spouse who relies on the earnings of…
Guess What? The Judge Doesn’t Love Your Kids
Before I was a practicing attorney, I clerked for a District Court Judge. He presided over many divorce cases. Whenever a contested custody case was before him, he had a…
Ignorance Is Not Bliss
In Minnesota contested divorce cases, it is not uncommon that one spouse is more “interested” in getting divorced that the other spouse. But, as I routinely tell clients, it takes…