Archive for September, 2008

How to Guarantee You’ll Have a Divorce from Hell

Monday, September 29th, 2008

While we all hear about those who want to have an “easy” divorce, some divorces just are not easy.  With a divorce attorney’s sense of humor, Cristi Trusler published the article “How to Guarantee You’ll Have a Divorce from Hell” on the blog Austin Divorce Help. Ms. Trusler has nine tips, including my favorite top [...]

Online Divorce Service violates Washington state law

Saturday, September 27th, 2008

An online divorce service has closed up shop in Washington after the state’s Attorney General’s Office determined that the company was violating state law by essentially providing paralegal services without the oversight of an attorney licensed in Washington state.  Check out the article from seattlepi.com here.

Child Support in Minnesota, Part 2: Determining Income and Other Necessary Information

Friday, September 12th, 2008

Now that you understand the basic concepts of Minnesota’s new child support law, you need to know what information is necessary to calculate support.  A tricky part to this is figuring out income.  You need to know each parties’ gross (before taxes) monthly income.  The new law also expects that (nearly) all parents can work [...]

Child Support in Minnesota, Part 1: The Basic Concepts

Thursday, September 11th, 2008

In 2006, the Minnesota state legislature approved a drastic overhaul of the state’s child support guidelines based on an “income shares” model.  (See Minn. Stat. 518A)  The new child support guidelines were to be used for all new cases filed after January 1st, 2007, limited modifications in 2007, and for all cases after January 1st, [...]

Startribune reports: New Child Support Rules Spark Backlash

Sunday, September 7th, 2008

Just as I have been working on a series of blog posts on the new Minnesota Child Support Guidelines, the Startribune comes out with an interesting article: “New Child Support Rules Spark Backlash.”  I suppose I’ll use this article and kick off a week dedicated to child support blog posts.
While this article does provide some [...]

Think you’re saving money by not hiring a lawyer? Think again.

Friday, September 5th, 2008

Just like all of you non-lawyers hear the horror stories of over-priced attorneys and expensive litigation (i.e. “I know someone who spent $50,000 on his divorce.  All that for nothing!”), lawyers get to hear all of the horror stories of clients who think they can do it without a lawyer, and then suffer the consequences.  [...]