Wisconsin Divorce Legal Questions

Under Wisconsin law, property owned either before or during the marriage is presumptively 50-50; the only exception would be inherited or gifted property. The answer to your question is dependent on how many years you are married; the court can deviate from equal property division after considering all the factors under the property division statute, sec. 767.61. WI statutes. Two of the main factors in your case would be the length of the marriage and property brought into the marriage by either party. If you are married less than 7 years, you may have a good chance of being credited for your pre-marital portion. If you are married long term, more than 20 years, most courts would not consider pre-marital credits. The gray area is in between 7-20 years; the longer you are married, the less likely the court deviates from presumptive 50-50 property division.... Read More

On these facts he probably can do that, and there is no obvious way to get your truck back at this point. Did you consider reaffirming the debt in the bankruptcy? Or trying to hold him responsible for what might be a non-dischargeable debt? Consult your BR lawyer. If you did not have one, it might have helped to retain one. You might want to consult an experienced BR lawyer now.... Read More

In Wisconsin, there will be separate hearing in two weeks to determine whether the temporary restraining order should be turned into a 4 year injunction. You have the right to appear at that hearing and cross examine your wife, present your defense and even present other witness testimony to refute the allegations made against you by your wife.   If a divorce action is filed by either of you, there will also routinely be a court hearing in the first 30 days of the filing of the divorce, the purpose of which is to set temporary court orders while you go through the divorce process. At the temporary hearing, the court will decide issues of custody, placement, visitation, child support, spousal support, use of the residence, cars, bank accounts, payment of debts and any other temporary issues that need to be resolved between you and your wife. Whether or not you will be placed back in the home is dependent on the outcome of the domestic abuse hearing. Domestic violence is a factor under the custody statute dealing with both custody (decision making) of the children as well as placement. I am sorry for your predicament. There are attorneys in the area who are not for profit who may be able to help you in the representation of your case if you otherwise cannot afford a private divorce lawyer.... Read More

A military pension is generally a divisible marital asset in Wisconsin. The court has discretion to deviate from presumed equal property division based on the number of years he served in the military, along with how many years you are married. Also, the fact that his pension has already been divided once may be a factor that the trial court might consider in terms of its current division in your case. I believe the military has a rule also that you have to be married at least 10 years to claim entitlement to the benefit, which obviously you meet after being married 12 years of marriage.... Read More

I routinely advise clients to obtain all of their furniture and personal items PRIOR TO the divorce being granted to avoid this very problem. It is very difficult after the fact to get the return of personal items and furniture. The more time that goes by, the more likely that things disappear, get broken, lost, or misplaced or argued about that it wasn't part of the list of items to be received. Courts also don't like dealing with it. Everyone looks at it as a nuisance. With that being said and done, if there was a specific list of items spelled out  in the divorce decree and your sister still has not received them, she should continue to pursue her contempt motion in court against her ex husband. If the divorce decree simply has a generic sentence that says "her personal items may be returned to her," she is going to have a much more difficult time getting those items returned. You can check the court internet web site (c cap) in Wisconsin for the history of the case and what happened each previous time she has gone to court on this issue. I don't have an explanation for her lawyer's representation of your sister's case, or the relevance of their having personal financial problems and how that remotely affects their representation of your sister's case. Your sister is free to chose another family attorney to take over the case, if she feels her lawyer isn't doing everything they can to help her.... Read More

If your friend acquires the home as part of their divorce settlement, more likely than not, they will be required by their divorce decree to refinance the mortgage and have the loan put in their name alone. If they obtain some type of jumbo mortgage loan or mortgage plus home equity loan, they are creating a huge pile of debt, not income. After the economy crashed, banks and mortgage companies are pretty tight about making sure loan to value ratios are in conformity with fair market values. It is doubtful they will be able to find anyone to secure a mortgage beyond the appraised value. If they can, they will be fully responsible for that debt. If there is any income tax issue in that equation, it would be on the federal level, not necessarily a state related income tax problem.... Read More

If you believe your husband is divesting the estate to take all the money and run, you could consider the option of filing for divorce or Legal Separation; once the case is filed, there will be a cautionary provision in the initial papers that you cannot sell, trade or give away marital property, without the other spouse's consent or by order of the court; further, you can request an initial court hearing which will take place in the first thirty or so days after filing, and at that court hearing can ask for an order that your spouse cannot sell any assets during the middle of the case and any assets that have been recently sold, that all of those monies be deposited into an escrow or trust account out of your husband's control, and no monies can be distributed from that account unless agreed to by the parties or by further order of the court; absent your filing a legal case as outlined above, you have little or no legal recourse against your husband and his plans apparently to liquidate the estate.... Read More

If you are divorced and if pursuant to your divorce, there were certain legal issues that need to be resolved to effect the terms, such as having a quit claim deed prepared to transfer ownership of real estate, or a qualified domestic relations order (QDRO) drafted for the transfer of a pension or 401K plan, your attorney is under an ethical obligation to you, to make sure all of those loose ends are resolved. His obligations to you are not over until ALL work is completed in your behalf. if you owe the attorney money for fees and costs, they are not entitled to hold the work to be completed "as hostage" until you pay; rather, under that circumstance, the attorney is required to notify you in advance that they are going to withdraw from your case unless you do pay for fees and costs and after that they can file a formal motion with the court to request to be discharged as your lawyer; if your lawyer's refusal to do the work has led to a financial loss, depending on the amount, it may arguably be both malpractice as well as an ethical violation. One would need more information from you to assess your specific situation.... Read More

I don't see why the same lawyer cannot represent a client in different legal matters; what makes you think that is a conflict of interest? It may be an entirely different matter if you were the client on one legal matter and now the same attorney is representing your spouse in another similarly related legal matter.... Read More

This will be easier if you have an attorney to interpret the court rules for you Look very closely at the Michigan Court Rules about "alternate service". Initially use a process server to attempt to serve him at his mom's home.. then you must file a motion for alternate service and with it an affidavit of attempted service in the appropriate time saying you have attempted to locate him via address searches and have attempted to contact him by telephone and notify him of the potential of a divorce but he will not give you an address to serve him A court will most likely grant you a divorce by service of process by publication in the county of his last know address (his mom's) and by posting on the bulletin board in the courthouse. Your divorce default judgment should be simple awarding each party the assets in their possession.... Read More

You are if it is relevant to an issue in the case. If the purpose is harassment, or to turn her in to the 'migra,' and she seeks an order protecting her from disclosure, she might prevail in keeping them away from you. If she does object,your lawyer may ask for an in camera review by the judge, who will then decide what to release to you.... Read More

Retirement benefits, including pensions and 401K plans, are many times the most lucrative assets of the entire marriage. Under Wisconsin law, you would be entitled to 50% of those benefits. In order to determine what to do about that now, after your divorce, you need to go back and review your divorce decree to see how the retirement benefit was dealt with. If the asset was awarded as part of your ex spouse's property division, then you would not be entitled to 50% now, after the fact. If on the other hand, you were awarded an interest in their retirement benefit(s), but for whatever reason, you have failed to act on it by way of securing your portion, which is usually done with a document entitled qualified domestic relations order (QDRO), you should be able to still pursue your share now. You may need the assistance of an attorney to help you.  If your ex spouse failed to disclose that they had a pension or 401K plan as part of your divorce, under sec. 767.127 (5) WI Stats., you can claim a constructive trust of any asset that was not disclosed, either deliberately or by accident, by filing a proper motion or petition for the court for relief.... Read More