Archive: August 2012

Wisconsin Court of Appeals Decides Frequent Filers Case

Published: Thursday, August 30th, 2012

Frequent filer cases are (fortunately) rare, but they exert an undue cost on the legal system.

Runaway Juror

Published: Wednesday, August 29th, 2012

According to an article in today’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, a “runaway” juror was fined $300 by Judge J.D. Watts.

What Not To Say To A Divorcee

Published: Friday, August 24th, 2012

An article from the Huntington Post offers plenty of good tips on what not say to a divorcee.

The Perils of Divorce Advice

Published: Tuesday, August 21st, 2012

Since family law is almost entirely based on individual state law, most of what people claim to know about divorce is simply wrong.

Personal Proclivity of Judges

Published: Wednesday, August 15th, 2012

A recent court of appeals case, Lemke v. Lemke, raises the question of when judges can bring their own experiences into play in making decisions.

Personal Proclivity of Judges Plays a Role in Cases

Published: Friday, August 10th, 2012

It’s rare that a discretionary order, such as maintenance, is reversed on appeal. It’s even rarer that the Wisconsin Court of Appeals goes to such length in reversing the order that it takes special concern to assure that on remand, the prevailing party on appeal can have a new judge hear the matter. Both occur in Lemke v. Lemke,

WI Court of Appeals Certifies Surrogacy Case

Published: Thursday, August 9th, 2012

The Wisconsin Court of Appeals has certified a first of its kind surrogacy case for review by the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

WI Court of Appeals Case Corrects Silly Rule

Published: Wednesday, August 8th, 2012

As I said in my previous post, the recent Court of Appeals case, Tierney v. Berger  appears to have corrected a silly rule in Wisconsin law:  A prohibition against “mixed” orders, which is an order which includes dollar-expressed and percentage-expressed support orders. Writing that column made me think of other silly laws in this field.  […]

Decision in Tierney Gets Right Result, But …

Published: Monday, August 6th, 2012

While the court gets to the proper result (in my never-to-be-humble opinion) in Tierney v. Berger, it does so in a convoluted way.

Wisconsin Surrogacy Case Raises Interesting Questions

Published: Friday, August 3rd, 2012

In re the Paternity of F. T. R. raises a number of interesting questions, both legally and philosophically for the Wisconsin Supreme Court.