Archive: 2002

Courts of Equity or Not?

Published: Wednesday, December 18th, 2002

The Wisconsin Court of Appeals intermittently tells us that it is primarily an error-correcting court. Recently, however, the court couldn’t resist the temptation to depart from that primary role to make a little new law, in Randy A.J. v. Norma I.J.,

Paternity and Arithmetic

Published: Wednesday, December 11th, 2002

A recent District II Court of Appeals case, recommended for publication, addressed the difficult issue of biological versus psychological parentage. In an interesting decision involving what the court of appeals called “an unusual factual situation scenario”, the court upheld the result reached by the trial court, but for entirely different reasons.

Math Games and Collaborative Law

Published: Friday, November 1st, 2002

While not professing to understand much of the extraordinary complexity of the mathematics, I find that there is a correlation between game theory and divorce settlement negotiations.

Divorce and Suicide Bombers

Published: Tuesday, October 1st, 2002

While the standard of living enjoyed during the marriage is one of many factors entering into a maintenance case, certainly there have to be better ways to establish it than the very public method chosen by Janet Welch.

Appreciating the Appreciation of Separate Property

Published: Tuesday, January 1st, 2002

It is well-established that under Wisconsin law income from excluded, non-marital property, is marital property. However, the law is not as clear regarding the effect of appreciation of non-marital property. A recent court of appeals decision does little to clear up this confusion.