STATES SEEKING TO CHANGE ALIMONY AWARDS
In Minnesota, I should say, the family law courts operate with no alimony guidelines, no alimony cap and are very conservative in awarding alimony. However, some states are seeking to regulate and even cap the amount of alimony (also known as spousal support) awarded in a divorce.
This is the topic of the article Alimony Arithmetic by L.J. Jackson in the February 2012 issue of ABA Journal It makes for interesting reading.
Thomas Moore
Office Manager
MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL, MN:
Courts Ramp Up Security
MY PERSONAL TAKE ON SAFETY IN THE COURTS
I’m the office manager for my wife’s family law firm in Minnesota. She – we – are concerned about the following possible scenarios: The attorney and her client are collateral damage from an act of violence performed by someone who has no relationship to us.
The attorney and her client can be at risk from the other side in a marriage / divorce case. There are cases in which one side or another
has, or should have, an order for protection against the other party, prohibiting contact between the parties. This is not always done and is not always effective or practical.
The attorney herself can be at risk from those who would seek her out to represent them. We carefully evaluate our clients so that if we really can’t help them, don’t feel safe with them, we respectfully decline to do so.
COURTROOM SHOOTING IN COOK COUNTY, MN
Here’s another view, drawn from Twin Cities Courtrooms Ramp Up Security published in the St. Paul, MN Pioneer Press www.twincities.com recently. The article is by Maricella Miranda, mmiranda@pioneerpress.com
Recently in a Cook County, MN court, a man found guilty of criminal sexual conduct, shot a prosecutor and the judge who sentenced
him. Now courts in the Minneapolis – St. Paul, MN area are acting to increase courthouse security.
MN COURTS MOVE TO IMPROVE COURTROOM SECURITY
As St. Paul-based security consultant Steve Swensen says, “People go to courthouses expecting to address their concerns. They actually have a right to be safe and secure… “ Mr. Swensen points out that safety can be improved not only by metal detectors, etc., but also by having courthouse workers trained to spot and act on security threats.
Various Minnesota court systems are studying and acting on ways to improve courthouse security. A committee of the Minnesota State
Legislature approved two bills intended to keep government attorneys safe. One would allow county attorneys to carry firearms on the job, outside of courthouses, and another would increase penalties for people convicted of killing or assaulting a prosecuting attorney.
Thomas Moore
Office Manager
THE EMOTIONAL VS THE FINANCIAL SIDE OF DIVORCE
Good article by Deborah Moskovitch in the Huffington Post on the inner conflicts you can go through in a divorce. Here’s the link:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/deborah-moskovitch/the-finances-of-divorce_b_1214050.html
Tom Moore
Office Manager
MINESOTA CHILD SUPPORT CALCULATOR
DIVORCE AND CHILD SUPPORT IN MN
This will be of interest to you if you are involved in a divorce or a child support matter in Minnesota.
The State of Minnesota has an online child support calculator: It is also known as the Minnesota Child Support Guidelines Calculator. It is easy to use and gives a standardized approximate answer to the question, “what will I pay in child support?” Remember, this web site gives you an estimate only. The child support calculator states, “This calculator is for informational and educational use only and is not a substitute for the child support guidelines. The court has the final authority to determine the amount of a child support order. The calculator provides an estimate only and is not a guarantee of the amount of child support the court will order.”
We hope you find this useful.
Tom Moore
Office Manager
DIVORCE LAWS AND SPECIAL NEEDS CHILDREN
TO PARENTS CONSIDERING DIVORCE; AND WITH SPECIAL NEEDS CHILDREN
Our family law firm is finding an increasing number of special needs children involved in divorce, custody, alimony, and child support litigation in our practice. We welcome them with open arms.
These developments in family law pose questions for family law courts and for family law attorneys. For instance, what if one party in the divorce does not believe the child to be handicapped and another party does? What if the attorney you choose has no experience and no informed opinions about your special needs child? What if the special needs child was convicted of a petty misdemeanor? These may seem petty questions indeed at first blush, but the situations from which they arise; and the consequences, can be serious indeed.
YOUR FAMILY LAW LAWER AND YOUR SPECIAL NEEDS CHILD
If you child is special needs, you want your attorney to be sensitive to the extra stress he might feel from the divorce – something he may not be capable of understanding intellectually but which he may be very expressive emotionally. You do not want an attorney who downplays the skills to deal with your child: an attorney for example who may see no difference at all between your child and others; or a lawyer who thinks that for a successful case; some friendly chat with a colleague or neighbor has a special needs child will suffice for training. No. You want the family lawyer you choose to understand, know about, and have strategies for dealing with what you have to deal with. For instance, suitable friends and schools, Special Olympics, assisted living, hospitalization, what the special needs child’s rights are under IDEA and other laws relating to the rights of handicapped persons. Possible or actual encounters with law enforcement no matter how minor. And, of course, the endless round of medications, their effects, their side effects, their dosages, what it’s like dealing with the doctor who administers them; the fact their effect changes due to stress, growing up and just plain body chemistry. I’d say, deeply before you invest in a family law attorney and even deeper before you choose, if you have a special needs child.
Thomas G. Moore
DIVORCE AND MOVING CHILDREN FROM MINNESOTA
We are finding an increasing number of clients come to us with questions about moving their children.
FAMILY LAW IN MINNESOTA
Minnesotalaw requires you to obtain permission of the Court before moving out of State with your children if there is an existing child custody order. This permission is granted when a parent can prove that a move will be in the best interests of the children. Increasingly, our clients have found it difficult to obtain this permission—especially when the other parent has been involved in the children’s lives.
That does not mean that it is impossible to obtain this permission. The difference between a successful request to move is often in the amount of preparation you do. You should have a job and a home. You should know where your children will go to school. If you have family in the new area, you should be prepared to explain why it is important for your children to develop a relationship with this family. You should be able to explain the problems of remaining inMinnesota, and the effect that staying here will have on your children. Finally, you should have a plan that allows your children to maintain a good relationship with their other parent.
FAMILY LAW LITIGATION IN MN
Litigation is the last resort in most of these cases. Your first order of business will be to attempt to convince the other parent that the children need to move with you. You may have a mediation clause in your present custody order which mandates an attempt to mediate, but even if you don’t have a mediation clause, you may very well want to try that before looking to the Courts. In almost every case, mediation of an issue like this, if it results in a settlement, will be less expensive than litigation. Studies show that people who resolve disputes through mediation are happier with the result, even if they could have gotten a better result through litigation. And our experience shows that Courts have some reluctance to permitting a move, even where a parent can show benefit to the children.
If you are on the receiving end of a request to move your children, you will need to explain why it’s not in the best interests of your children to move. You will want to focus on their life inMinnesotaand what your children will lose out on if they move. You will be slightly favored in Court, since the other parent will have the burden of proof of showing why it’s in your children’s best interests to move, but that doesn’t mean that you should simply assume that there is no case. Consider what might happen if, for example, your children’s other parent can’t find work inMinnesota. Perhaps your children would be better served if their other parent had better support from family in the new location. Finally, consider that your children’s other parent may simply not have a choice whether to stay in Minnesota or move, and your children may be moving from their home no matter what (even if it is into your home).
But what if the other parent moves the children without my permission?
In this event, you have remedies, most of the time. Minnesotacustody orders are enforced in every other state pursuant to the Uniform Child Custody and Jurisdiction Act. Under that Act, you can obtain an Order which gives you the ability to ask law enforcement to assist you in securing your children’s return. There may be additional criminal consequences for removing the children, especially if you are not told where you can find your children.
MOVING CHILDREN TO A FOREIGN COUNTRY DURING A DIVORCE
If the children are removed from the country, you may have rights pursuant to the Hague Convention, an international agreement that permits you to enforce aUnited Statescustody order in another country. Unfortunately, not every country is a signatory to the Hague Convention. In those countries, you will be required to seek redress through the foreign country’s courts, and many times, those courts are unwilling to assistU.S.citizens.
For those cases where a parent may want to remove a child to a non-Hague Convention nation, it is necessary to prevent the travel before it occurs. One way is to limit the ability of a parent to travel with the children within the terms of a custody order or divorce decree. Another is to keep your children’s passport with you, or to withhold your permission for the other parent to obtain a passport for your children. Finally, you may enroll in the State Department’s Children’s Passport Issuance Alert Program (http://travel.state.gov/abduction/prevention/passportissuance/passportissuance_554.html), a program which will alert you if anyone applies for a passport on behalf of your children.
Jennifer Moore
Courthouse Security
Jennifer Moore
You Have the Right to Remain Silent….
Let’s say you get a call from the police asking you to come down to the station to answer a few questions. The officer on the phone politely tells you that you’ve been accused of some conduct. He suggests that answering a few questions might clear the whole thing up. What do you do?
THE HOLIDAYS AND FAMILY LAW
THERE IS A SEASON – EVEN FOR FAMILY LAWYERS AND DIVORCE
It’s January 5, 2012 in Minnesota. The ground is bare, it’s dry and warm forMinnesota. We’ve done all the work we can today for clients. Good! We even got a little snow. There’s some time to reflect and relax. We’ll be spending a pleasant New Year’s weekend with a friend or two and with my family. It’s time to reflect on the facts that we’re all human after all, and we deserve to be treated with respect. We have had a larger than usual number of what we call Initiial Client Interviews – someone coming in to consult with our lawyer (we are a one-attorney firm); someone taking that first legal step in a possible divorce, child custody, alimony, or child support case – maybe with an OFP (Order for protection) thrown in. Sometimes it would be easy to give up in the face of what are sometimes increasing levels of acrimony discord and unhappiness.
At our family law firm what we do instead is work to really solve the real problems our clients and potential clients are facing regarding their divorce. And – frankly – to earn our fees so that we are able to do the good work we do and to improve on that too.
What we also do regarding work, especially at holidays is to be thankful our family law attorney – my boss – can do good work. Besides that I find myself looking forward with confidence that we can weather the storms – material, natural, physical, social, and emotional. We manage to do it every day and when we can, we help ameliorate these storms for ourselves and our clients.
THE GOOD THINGS ABOUT ATTORNEYS AND COURTS AND HOLIDAYS
Litigation and dealing with a lawyer is always difficult on some level. The holidays give us all a chance to reflect on where we’ve been, our friends and associates and family, and on where we’re going. The holidays are not only turkey and parties and trips and all the negative things that can happen too. For me at least — and not only me! – holidays are also a time to look ahead, to draw a line under the past, to know we can’t shuck our past as if we were tossing a backpack in a corner. It’s always with us, but you know, out of all the turmoil and out of all they joy and out of all the work, we learn, we grow, and we move on.
Happy New Year!
Tom Moore
SOLO FAMILY LAW PRACTICE IN MN
LIFE IN ONE LAWYER FAMILY LAW FIRM
Hello again! I’ve been embarrassed lately looking for a topic for this blog, to tell the truth. I’m not a lawyer, an accomplished techie, a CPA or even a trained office manager. So what can I contribute to the conversation on line? Why, an inside view of a solo (one attorney) family Law practice in MN. So, here goes!
I’ve been reading Hennepin Lawyer, the organ of the Hennepin County Bar Association. One article that caught my eye was Solo Practice in the 21st Century by Maggie Green. The article has some good basic points for attorneys: create and live by a business plan. Stay organized. I’d say that means focus on a narrow area of the law where you can not only make a living and help clients but also gain in depth knowledge.
But, anyway, back to Ms. Green. If you are planning to employ a lawyer I think what reall matters is these words of hers: “Do great work… and everything else will fall into place.” This is true, true, true. Good article if you want to see what hour solo attorney has to deal with. I can speak from experience. If we don’t do good work here, we don’t get the business, and word gets around we’re not good lawyers. Word also gets around that we are worth retaining, when we do good work.
TECHNOLOGY AND FAMILY LAW IN MINNESOTA
Another article worth reading is Mandatory E-Filing in the Fourth Judicial District. The article is by Colleeen Hillesheim with the help of Jim Skoog. I’ll admit the article does NOT sound thrilling. But think about this. It means that lawyers can finally use emails to file (i.e., officially present to the court and to other attorneys) documents relevant to a particular case — at least in Hennepin County, MN (Minneapolis); and, at least, for the family and civil courts. Still, this is progress. This means that our clients’ child custody, child support, alimony, divorce cases can be handled more efficiently with less time and less expense. The ease of using emails compared to printed / hard copy documents, or faxed documents, makes it well worth using emails. Now, your lawyer and their staff can focus more on legal work and less on postage, stamps, trips to the US Post Office, and so on.
Finally, one more article from the legal press:
THE CRISIS GROWS: Concerns Over Funding for State Courts Dominate the ABA Annual Meeting
(THE ABA is the American Bar Association.). This article is by James Podgers in the September 2011 issue of ABA Journal I’ll just quote a few lines:
“The nation’s economic crisis ‘has resulted in additional cuts in funding for our already underfunded state courts.’ Robinson told the House.” [Mr. Podgers is quoting William T Robinson III]. ‘This threatens the very viability of our entire justice system in America and puts at risk the third co-equal branch of government.’” This may sound far fetched but the vast body of civil rights and legal rights built up over centuries have, at least until recently, served to protect the average citizen. For there to be any such protection, courts have to function. And courts can’t function without funding.
The 566 member House, which sets American Bar Association policy, approved a resolution calling for bar associations, lawyers, and judges to document the impact of cutbacks in judicial funding, and to create coalitions for adequate funding for the courts.
Tom Moo, Office Manager
