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Family Law

Parenting Consultants: A Contractual Model for Resolving Parenting Disputes

Kathleen Newman April 27, 2016

Most family law attorneys would agree that of all the major disagreements that take place both during a divorce proceeding and post-divorce, issues that involve parenting minor children are most common. When parents share joint legal custody and parenting time, as most parents do, temporary changes to the parenting time schedule, vacation scheduling, participation in extracurricular activities, medical treatment, religious

The Putative Father Registry: An Update

Kara North March 8, 2016

Over the course of the last few years, Utah’s adoption laws have regularly made headlines, but not for the reasons one would hope. Nationally, Utah has become an infamous forum for non-resident birth mothers in search of adoptive families, often without the knowledge or consent of the putative father. Utah, not unlike many other states, does not recognize the interests

Lowering Conflict in Paying for Higher Education: How Divorce Impacts the College-Bound Child

Kathleen Newman March 7, 2016

One of the unspoken problems in divorce today is the financial impact it has on adult or soon-to-be adult children, assuming that the adult child is not disabled. In Minnesota, a person is considered an adult when they reach the age of 18. Minn. Stat. §645.451 subd. 3. Under the divorce statutes, however, financial support for a child continues until

In the Best Interests of a Teenager: How Child-Centered Mediation Can Help Keep the Peace

Kathleen Newman January 25, 2016

Parents, lawyers, social services professionals and therapists all become involved in trying to work out a parenting schedule that works. The focus, however, is too often on what is fair to the parents versus what will meet a teenager’s needs. As a family law attorney, I have had several cases recently where the parties have inquired about parenting time for

Hide and Seek: Determining an Accurate Value of a Business in a Divorce

Kathleen Newman January 4, 2016

Divorce is as much a financial process as an emotional one. If a party does not receive his/her fair share of the marital property, that spouse may be left facing difficult financial circumstances for some time after the divorce. That is why the failure of a party to disclose all of the assets during a divorce is a critical violation

Qualified Domestic Relations Orders: Avoiding Pitfalls from Stipulation to Division

Kristy Hanson December 29, 2015

A qualified domestic relations order (QDRO) is used in a divorce to divide the retirement, pension and other such interests of parties. Whether you actually draft QDROs yourself or refer your clients on to another attorney for the drafting of the QDRO following the signing of the decree of divorce, it is critical that you include proper language in the

Plenty of Gray Area: Divorce Among the 55-Plus Population

Kathleen Newman December 8, 2015

For many years, the divorce rate has hovered around 50 percent. That statistic hasn’t changed, but recently researchers have found that a higher proportion of those divorcing couples are over 55. Many couples going through a gray divorce have, not surprisingly, been in long term marriages, presenting a very different set of issues in a divorce case than their younger

The Unintended Gift: What Every Client Should Know

Doreen Yaffa December 8, 2015

Most people get married truly believing that it will be forever. Divorce statistics, however, indicate that “forever” is not always the case. Family law practitioners usually recommend that couples protect themselves by entering into a contract which spells out exactly what each party is entitled to in the event of divorce – pre-nuptial or post-nuptial agreements. Although this is the

“There Ain’t No Sanity Clause”: Surviving the Holidays During Divorce

Sonya DuBree November 24, 2015

“All in all, it was a pretty exciting Christmas, what with the relatives and the presents and the fun and the cops and Aunt Hazel’s dog blowing up in our living room.”This opening line to John Hughes’ short story “Christmas ‘59” (and the inspiration for National Lampoon’s “Christmas Vacation”) so perfectly captures the melee of holiday dysfunction. Add divorce and

Utah Improves Putative Father’s Rights

Paul MacArthur November 10, 2015

Prior to a recent statutory change, Section 110 of the Utah Adoption Act provided a practitioner with all of the notice requirements in relation to an unwed biological father (or putative father) of a newborn child being placed for adoption. Under section 110, a putative father was entitled to notice of adoption proceedings only if he had, prior to the

Family Law

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