In the state of Minnesota, religion is considered an issue dealt with through legal custody. If the parents can agree on the bigger issues in a child’s life, such as religion or where the child will attend school, the court will often grant joint legal custody and allow the parents to make those decisions together. However, if there has been domestic abuse or there is a clear indication that the parents are unable to communicate and work out disagreements over legal custody matters, the court may grant sole legal custody to one parent over the other.

If one parent has sole legal custody and the other parent violates it by exposing the child to another religion, the parent with legal custody may file a motion asking the court to hold the offending party in contempt of court. This basis for this is that the offending party violated a court order and is not following the terms that the court set out. The offending party is given the opportunity to admit or deny that they violated the order, and if the court finds they did violate it then purge conditions must be set to rectify the situation. The party would not go directly to jail; jail is not meant to be a punishment, but rather a tool to gain compliance of that party.

If you do not have legal custody but would like the court to consider allowing you to address your religious beliefs or other matters, you are able to file a motion with the court. The court may look at the issue and if the judge finds it is in your child’s best interests, they may order something other than what the parent with sole legal custody would like.

If you have questions about legal custody and your rights, call the attorneys at Heimerl & Lammers for a free initial consultation today.

 Spousal maintenance can either be permanent or temporary in nature.  There is nothing in the statutes to favor temporary spousal maintenance over a permanent award. 

 The court looks at multiple factors to determine if spousal maintenance is appropriate, but the biggest factors to consider are the need of the spouse requesting maintenance, the ability of the other spouse to pay, and the standard of living established during the marriage. 

 Therea re tax implications for characterizing a settlement as a maintenance payment rather than a property settlement.  If the divorcing parties have enough assets to arrange for a property settlement to support the receiving spouse, it may be the better option.  However, there are benefits to each option and they should be weighed in discussions with your Minnesota divorce attorney.

The court has made the child support calculator available online on the Minnesota Department of Human Services website. If you have questions about the amount of child support you may be awarded, it is a good idea to start there and experiment with income figures.

If a parent is under- or un-employed, the court may impute income to them. Income may be imputed to an amount that they are capable of earning, have earned in the past, or a default amount of 150% of minimum wage (approximately $1,702.00 per month). If after child support has been awarded there are changes in a parent’s income, the court may modify the child support award. This is done through a motion filed by the party requesting the change. The court will look at the request, see if it qualifies as a change in circumstances defined in Minnesota Statute § 518A.39, and determine if a modification would be appropriate.

If you have questions about child support in general, or more specific questions about your case, call the family law attorneys at Heimerl & Lammers today.

This can have long-term effects on custody as well. The abuser may not be prohibited from having any relationship in the future, but it is difficult to overcome an abusive past to reestablish a relationship with your children. The abuser and children will probably go through some reunification therapy and gradually work to develop a relationship and trust again.

If an Order For Protection only protects one parent from the other but the children are not involved, there will generally be parenting time involved. An Order For Protection does make it more likely that the court would order sole legal custody, meaning that the custodial parent would have the sole right to make the big decisions in the children’s lives. However, there would be parenting time arranged through a third party or through a safety center.

The parenting time awarded to parents in abusive relationships varies depending on the unique circumstances of each case. If you have questions about parenting time in your family law case, contact the family law attorneys at Germscheid, Heimerl & Lammers today for a free consultation.

When a case has already been filed with the court and started, it may make sense to have the court place the case on “inactive status.” Inactive status allows the parties to keep the court file open for up to one year while they try to save their relationship and avoid finishing the divorce process. If the parties have not come back to court within the year, then the court file is automatically closed. However, if things do not work out and the parties decide to go forward with the divorce, they are able in that year to just contact the court and start again where they left off. This allows the parties to save the additional cost of having to re-file a case and start over from the beginning of the case.

Parties are also able to drop their divorce case altogether if they are confident that they will be able to reconcile. It makes no difference to place the case on inactive status though, so it generally is a good way to handle your case if you have any doubt that reconciliation will work.

During the divorce process, attorney fees are generated by everything the attorney does for you, including preparation for court or mediation and general counseling of the client.  There is no guarantee that the court will require one party to pay the attorney fees of the other.  However, depending on the discrepancy in income levels and the access each party has to marital assets, it is possible that fees will be ordered.  Minnesota statutes do state that if an award of fees is necessary for a party to carry on the proceedings, fees should be awarded.  This does not allow a party to continue to bring the other spouse back in court for unnecessary hearings though.  The court generally will look at one spouse’s need for payment and the other spouse’s ability to pay.

Most divorce cases settle outside of court.  When this is done, attorney fees may be negotiated between the parties.  Most often, the party with lesser means will pay their attorney fees and other debts out of the property settlement.  They may receive more assets or liquid funds to be able to do this.  Each settlement is unique.  Generally, however, both parties will need some payment to get an attorney involved in the proceedings.

Minnesota Statute § 518.175 addresses a request to move to another state. This statute sets out the requirement that if a parent is requesting to move, it is their burden to show that it is in the best interest of the child. The statute further sets out specific factors that need to be considered by the court in making this decision.

If domestic violence has occurred between the parties, then the burden shifts to the parent objecting to the move to show it is in the child’s best interest to remain in Minnesota.

Generally, the court will not find it to be in the child’s best interest to move if the child is well integrated into the community here and there is any possibility that the child’s relationship with the parent who is not moving would be affected by the move. The court wants to be sure that both parents are able to carry on a relationship with the child and have a strong relationship with him or her.

An interesting point in discussions of moving is that there is no standard for if a parent wants to relocate within the state of Minnesota. Unless the parties previously agreed otherwise, the relocating parent does not have to get permission from the other parent or from the court. This leads to some confusion, as sometimes a parent may just want to move one town over which is in another state, which requires permission, but would be able to easily move hours away across the state with no problems.

If your child’s parent has left the state of Minnesota with your child and without yours or the court’s permission, you should speak to an attorney about your rights. There are procedures and remedies available for you through the court system. Contact the family law attorneys at Germscheid, Heimerl & Lammers for a free consultation to discuss your case today.

An OFP can have additional effects other than just putting a no-contact provision in place. In reality, the OFP may end up resolving some collateral issues outside of just contact. For example, if both parties were residing together before the abuse, the OFP may award temporary occupancy of the home to one party, generally the victim of the abuse. This may have a longer-term effect on the other pending legal action if the home is to be awarded in the future.

Obtaining an OFP gives a party faster results than going through the regular court process, but it should not be abused by parties. Provisions determined in an OFP hearing may be later modified in the family law case that is pending. Also, the court is able to look at all circumstances surrounding the incident of abuse to determine if there really is a valid claim for protection or if the court believes the party is abusing the system to gain an advantage in the family court proceedings. Parties should not feel discouraged from bringing an OFP during a custody or divorce proceeding, but it should only be done when there has been a legitimate incident of abuse, or one party is in fear of the other and needs additional protection from the court that they cannot get through the divorce or custody action.

The default distribution for an intestate individual is as follows:
• If there is a surviving spouse and all of the decedent’s children are joint children with the spouse, then the spouse receives the entire estate
• If the decedent had children outside of the marriage with the current spouse, then the current spouse gets the first $150,000 of the estate, plus one-half of the remaining estate

If there is no surviving spouse, then the property goes as follows:
• First to the children of the decedent;
• If the decedent has no children, grandchildren, then to the decedent’s surviving parent;
• If there are no surviving parents, then to the decedent’s parents’ descendants
• If there are no descendants of the decedent’s parents, then to the descendants of the decedent’s grandparents (i.e.-cousins)
• If no relatives can be found, then the property passes to the state.

Even if you want all of your assets to transfer to your children or spouse at the time of your death, there are other reasons to draft a will. For example, if you have minor children, you want to make sure they are provided for right after you die. You are able to name who you would like to take over as guardian for your children. Also, you are able to make specific gifts to individuals, which can avoid fighting within the family after you are gone. Another benefit is if you have a large estate, you may use different estate planning methods to avoid paying taxes or other transfer fees out of your assets at the time of your death. To discuss these and other reasons it is important to have an estate plan, contact the attorneys at Germscheid, Heimerl & Lammers today.

A new trend in domestic abuse research and advocacy is looking at distinguishing between types of abuse and abusers, since not every case is the same and in need of the same treatment. An article published by MPR interviewed Ellen Pence of Praxis International and Liz Richard of the Minnesota Coalition for Battered Women. This article explains the difference in recommendations for “situational violence” perpetrators, such as anger management programs, and chronic abusers, including extensive monitoring and longer jail sentences.

There is currently a two-year pilot program in Minneapolis, The Battered Women’s Justice Project, that is looking at how domestic violence may be viewed differently by custody evaluators, attorneys and judges in the family law system. Advocates hope that the system will be able to take a more nuanced view of domestic abuse and how abuse affects families as a whole, regardless of who the abuse was perpetrated against. There is also a goal of changing the way domestic abuse cases are handled once they are in the family court system.