Archives: Articles By Gregg Herman

Collaborative divorce has been tried and tested in a number of states and is spreading throughout the country.

Wisconsin law is a mixture of different standing requirements and standards for grandparent visitation and other third-party intervention. Thus, some of these statutes are vulnerable to constitutional attack in light of the U.S. Supreme Court decision.

So, one year later, what has been the effect of the state’s massive revisions in custody and placement laws?

When a divorce is looming, but not yet filed, at what point must the husband and wife get court approval for family law agreements?

In few other areas of law do the parties to a lawsuit share as intimate a knowledge of each other as do those in a divorce case. In addition, in few other areas of law will the parties have an ongoing relationship with each other after the lawsuit is completed.

In personal injury cases, the use of formal discovery is routine. Failure to do so may, in fact, be negligence. But, family law is not personal injury law. In fact, in many – if not most, family law cases, doing formal discovery may be malpractice.

In Bonds v. Bonds, the California Supreme Court held that the failure of a spouse to secure independent legal representation during negotiations with the spouse who was promoting entry into a prenuptial agreement does not, per se, invalidate the agreement at the time of divorce.

In Randall v. Randall, when a court applies the shared-time formula for child support, it is also required to order the parties to share the variable costs for the children in the same proportion in which they share the children.

As a result of June 7, 2000, a Supreme Court of Wisconsin case, Washington v. Washington, 2000 WI 47, trial courts now have the power to grant relief, even years after the judgment.

On February 22, 2000, the Supreme Court of Wisconsin granted review of the court of appeals decision in Meyer v. Meyer, which involves the treatment of professional degrees under Wisconsin family law.