“More Than Words”: Domestic Abuse Orders for Protection
Coming of age in the 90’s meant living through the music industry’s emergence from the nascient, arena rock/power ballad era; where rock immortals like ‘Poison’ and ‘Aerosmith’ (to name a…
Custody Rights & the Path to Redemption
You may remember the film, Shawshank Redemption, a 1994 film starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman, based on the Stephen King short story, Rita Hayworth & Shawshank Redemption. A fantastic…
Paying Child Support as Disabled Parent
Divorced or separated parents often find themselves under a court-ordered obligation to provide financial support for their children. That‘s Minnesota Courts are required, when issuing orders about custody and parenting…
Changing Your Child’s Name
A few years ago, I represented a Mother who wanted to change her child’s last name. She wanted her child to have her last name. The Mother and the child’s…
Grandparent Custody Rights
Wrongly, grandparents can easily be cast in the ‘dowdy’ mould of an itinerant, doting subordinate, having no role in actively meeting a child’s daily needs, but defiantly spoiling the child…
A Parent’s Duty to Support a Child: Broad & Sweeping
Minnesota Courts have broad discretion in providing for the support of minor children. This has been explained many different ways by the Minnesota appellate courts. In Minnesota, our lawmakers established…
Child Custody & School Placement
Here’s a dilemma. Two parents share equal custody and equal time with their child. But they live in different cities. The child is 5 and will soon be starting school….
Spousal Maintenance and Standard of Living in Minnesota
Marc and I have been practicing law together for 10 years; and before that we practiced at different firms for many years. During our combined 40+ years of practicing law,…
Minnesota Child Support: a Handshake Is Not Enough
The Minnesota Supreme Court was recently asked whether a ‘handshake’ agreement between parents to pay support for their child is enforceable in Minnesota. Their answer was … “no”. This announcement…
All In The Family: the Importance of Exclusivity
Some of us are old enough to remember the Archie Bunker archetype, and the disdain for his in-law Mike ‘Meathead’ Stivic famously portrayed in the iconic All in the Family…