Archives: Family Law

A frequent issue in family law revolves around a child’s privilege with his or her therapist. On occasion, one of the parents will attempt to secure the therapy records against the wishes of the other parent and sometimes, against the wishes of the Guardian ad Litem and the therapist. A recent Wisconsin Court of Appeals decision in a non-family law case may create serious problems in keeping these records private.

Although the Wisconsin legislature failed to override Gov. Jim Doyle’s veto of legislation to define marriage as between a man and a woman, the issue may be moot if other states recognized same-sex marriage

The Wisconsin supreme court recently artfully danced around a few thorny policy issues when it released its long-awaited decision in LeMere v. LeMere, 2003 WI 67.

When there is a significant dispute over children, in most jurisdictions the court will appoint a representative for the child.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court made its first venture into the complicated issue of the statute of limitations for pursuing child support arrears on May 30, when it decided State v. Hamilton.

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.,

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.

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.

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.

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.