Divorce is a stressful process, and the last thing most people want when it’s over is to spend more time with a lawyer. We understand, and we don’t take that personally! Unfortunately, if you didn’t update your estate plan when you filed for di…
Read More
No-fault divorce has been available in Minnesota for nearly five decades, which means that it has been state law for longer than most Minnesotans have been married. Even so, we encounter a lot of misconceptions about what no-fault divorce is and how…
Read More
Parental alienation involves sustained efforts by one parent (the alienating parent) to turn a child against the other parent (the targeted parent). In effect, the alienating parent engineers the child’s rejection of the other parent. This is gener…
Read More
One of the most challenging issues for parents after a divorce or breakup is introducing a new partner to the children. When it’s your partner, you can decide whether the time is right, and how your partner will interact with your children. But wha…
Read More
We’ve all seen dramatic moments in movies or television shows in which a judge thunders, “You’re in contempt!” followed by a participant in a court proceeding being removed from the courtroom, presumably to a jail cell to think about their mi…
Read More
If you have never been involved in probating an estate, you may not be very familiar with the process. If you have served as a personal representative of an estate, you may be more familiar with probate than you want to be. This can be time-consuming…
Read More
Going through a divorce or other family law case is stressful all on its own. But what happens when you have multiple family law cases going on at once or have a criminal or administrative case that intersects with your family law cases? How do you d…
Read More
The incidence of divorce among couples in their fifties, sixties, and beyond has nearly doubled in the past thirty years. The reasons for the increase in so-called “gray divorces” are many and varied, but the outcome is that more and more older c…
Read More
It seems as if COVID-19 has disrupted every aspect of life: working, going to school, traveling, entertainment, worship services, and even how we get along at home. The pandemic has also made it harder to get things we want — from toilet paper in 2…
Read More
Some of the hardest choices many of us face involve how we care for our loved ones. Do we put our newborn in daycare so that we won’t lose the job that supports them, or stay home with them and slash our budget? Do we stay by the hospital bedside o…
Read More
In Minnesota, as in most states, courts prefer divorced parents to share joint legal custody of their children, which means making major decisions for the child as a team. Those major decisions include things like education and health care decisions,…
Read More
There are many reasons that divorcing or separating parents argue over custody of their children. While gaining a tax advantage may not be the primary reason to seek custody of a child, historically, there have been federal tax benefits associated wi…
Read More
Divorce closes one chapter in your life and opens another. In order to move forward, you need a financial foundation. That foundation comes, in part, from your share of the marital assets. Minnesota is an equitable distribution state, in which marita…
Read More
In Minnesota, as in other states, child custody is decided based on what would be “in the best interests of the child.” The list of “best interest” factors considered by the Minnesota legislature in 2015 to reflect developments in the underst…
Read More
You have no doubt heard the expression, “You can’t take it with you.” But what happens to the assets you must leave behind if you don’t have a will or other estate plan? In that case, dying without a will can cause your assets to pass by what…
Read More