Greetings from St. Paul, Minnesota. Having returned to my office after a week away, this is my opportunity not only to dive back into working on divorce and family law cases, but also to dive into the world of blogging.
As a family law attorney, I spend a great deal of my time answering people’s questions. That is an obvious and important part of rendering legal advice to a client in the midst of a divorce or child custody dispute, or arguing a case in family court. Other attorneys will often post questions on listserves that have recently popped up on the internet, and friends and family members will often pick my brain about family law issues that they have encountered, or just out of plain curiosity. This blog is meant to serve as a place to post questions and answers on important family law issues.
It is my hope that this blog will serve as a helpful resource on the subject of Minnesota divorce and family law. Please feel free to post a question (with due regard for the disclaimer on the sidebar) by clicking on the comments link below.
Why do grandparents have to go to great lengths to get their grandchildren in a TPR case when the parents want them to have their child? Why do counties get to pick a home for the child before any family search or anything has been done? I also wonder, if we as citizens have to follow the law, why doesn’t family services?
We have 4 children in our home that we have shared for the last 5 years. Last year the mother of the child that my husband has reported us to social services for something that did not happen. It was investigated and found to be untrue by the sheriff’s investigator. Since this happened we have not been allowed contact with the child becuase the mother does not want us to. Is there any way to stop or lower the child support in this case? Can you give us a place to find information on situations like this? Please help us.
Will a Judge see through a non-custodial parents mental manipulation of a minor to change a custody arrangement if it is fairly clear that the non-custodial parent is manipulating the child for purposes of financial implications/child support? Said child is 16. Or will the court automatically go with the expressed preference of the child? What if the child decides to go back and live with the custodial parent because the grass wasn’t greener at the NCP’s? How is child support affected or not?
okay, let’s start off with mother & father not married. father paying health insurance & child support, never late on payments either. mother refuses father to take son to doctor for anything!!! father has no money to pay for lawyer to: 1) try get school records on son to see how he’s doing; 2) have right to take son to doctor if needed; 3) have set times when he can see son, not just when she feels its okay; 4) have notification of when mother leaves child with friends/boyfriends instead of father; 5) father wants his parents to be able to see their grandson and 6) why does he have to pay so much for child support??
father is left with under $300 a month to try pay his bills, rent, food, etc. while mother gets $750 plus father has to pay medical on son!!
what can a father do????
are there any pro-bono cases that lawyers do to help people out???
legal aid says they can not help.
social services will not help.
the mother of child has a mother & aunt that work in the court and social service dept that stop all of the fathers attempts, even having a woman fired in social services for trying to help the father!!
the son needs to see a doctor for his hearing, he needs medical attention but mother denies it and wont allow son to go to doctor.
what is the father to do? who will help father & son???
My step daughter has been living with my husband and I for a little over a year. Previously, she resided with her mother in Illinois, and we paid child support for her. She has never done well in school and would have failed 6th grade if she hadn’t come to live with us. We continued to pay child support for her even while she was living with us, but the payments have stopped and the mother cancelled the services of child support services in Illinois. Her mother wants her back now that we have “fixed” her, and says if she gets pregnant or starts failing again we can have her back for another year. We want to fight for custody. Do we do it here or in Illinois? We need to modify the child support and custody in the state of Illinois but do not want to have to send her back to her mother for fear that we won’t get her back. What do we do?
What is the law for unmarried couples who live in Minnesota and the mother wants to move to Wisconsin with the children?