Wisconsin Family Legal Questions

Is paternity established? If you were not married, this person would have no legal rights towards your child whatsoever. If paternity is established,  he would have the right to request placement of the child, but to win a custody battle against you, he would basically have to prove you are an "unfit mother." That would require that he prove in court that you are either an alcoholic, drug addict, or  have serious criminal problems, mental health issues or child abuse issues against you. The law in Wisconsin does not favor giving one parent primary placement and making the other parent a distant visiting parent; rather, the law for nearly the last 16 years favors the courts giving both parents, substantial and meaningful periods of placement which most people consider shared or equal placement. Without knowing the age of your child or any other facts, it is difficult to answer your question in terms of what his actual chances might be.... Read More

Who has title to the car? A minor cannot legally enter into a contract so how was the car purchased? If the car is titled in your name, even though it was a car purchased for the exclusive use of your 17 year old, you can arguably be held responsible if there was an accident with the car and no one had insurance on it.... Read More

Any time either party is receiving any state assistance, the state agency is going to insist that paternity be established if the child was born out of wedlock and that the party pay for the support of the minor child. Since apparently, she is on state aid (badger care), the child support enforcement division is looking at you to start paying child support. I don't understand the note about losing your parental rights or getting them back. If you have been adjudicated as being the child's father, you have rights towards the child, even if you chose not to personally exercise them. The only way your parental rights can be terminated is if the child is put up for adoption or step parent adoption where your rights are either terminated voluntarily or involuntarily if there are grounds to so under the law.... Read More

I am not sure I completely understand your post; the father is a physician and prescribed medicine to their own child? I don't think that is medically appropriate and certainly may be a professional issue to take up with the state licensing board. On top of that, you have the issue of multiple medications being prescribed by various doctors that may overlap each other and may be contraindicated. How old is the child? The next issue I see is not informing the other parent of what is going on while the child remains heavily medicated. If this is in the middle of a custody case, the mother is well advised to hire the best family law custody lawyer she can. Something sounds way off in how things are going down. Is there a court appointed guardian ad litem? You mention contempt in your post, but I don't know what the person would be in contempt of? There has to be a specific court order to be found in contempt. Arguably, the father may be in contempt for interfering with the joint custodial rights of the mother, but I can't tell from your post if that is what you are alluding to?... Read More

If the parties were never married, one of them needs to file a petition to establish paternity in court. They can do that by either signing a vountary acknowledgment of paternity OR file a formal paternity case at the court house. The court can order D.N.A. testing, to show whether your son is the biological father. Once he is established as being the child's father, the court will also hold a  hearing to determine his custody and placement rights. He will also be court ordered to pay support. If he already has been established as being the child's father and has custody and placement orders in place that the mother is interfering with, his remedy is filing either a motion for contempt or motion to enforce physical placement, so he can see his chlid without ongoing interfereence from the mother.... Read More

I assume you periodically have visitation with your mother. You should talk with your mother about the idea of her petitioning the family court to request that you come and live with her. At your age,  there is a strong chance the court would allow you to go live with your mother if she pursued it legally in court. No one can promise you or guarantee you the outcome, but that would be the next legal step in your wanting to be out of your father's home, for whatever personal reasons you might have.... Read More

it is difficult to convince a court that a parent must have supervised or restricted visitation; there must be exigent and extraordinary concerns that the child's physical or emotional safety is endangered. Can you prove that in court? How old is your child? What direct evidence do you have that the grandmother drinks too much and has parties while your child is there? If you feel strongly that your child is truly at risk, file a motion with the court to restrict placement. The court can consider the appointment of a Guardian ad litem to investigate your concerns and if the court appointed GAL is convinced there is a problem at dad's house, appropriate recommendations will be made to the court for the safety and protection of your child.... Read More

If enough people reading your blog can put 2 & 2 together, and if you said things about this person that are false and defaming, you could have a problem; however, "truth" is an absolute defense, so if the person is simply upset that you used a public forum to say things about them, but the things you have stated are true, while they can be upset, it may not rise to a level of legal action against you. I am a family/divorce lawyer so I strongly encourage you as soon as possible to sit down with a lawyer experienced in slander and defamation cases, to make sure your blog post didn't cross the line here. ... Read More

The preference in the law is that children get placed with mom or dad before third parties, absent a showing that the parents are unfit. I don't think you have legal standing as a step-parent to have placement of the child, absent a CHIPS petition, (child in need of protective placement) and even than, they may look to other relatives or family members before you. I am sorry. but that is my take on the situation. There is a third party step parent statute in Wisconsin (the so called "grandparents visitation statute") that allows a third party to petition for visitation rights, but that statute doesn't involve custodial/placement rights.... Read More

I don't see that the attorney has a conflict of interest in representing your ex husband in a post divorce proceeding, in my opinion. I assume your ex husband's current wife is some type of a paralegal or legal assistant at the lawyer's office.. Why do you think that is a conflict of interest?... Read More

You cannot terminate the parental rights of the father, unless it is subject to an adoption or step-parent adoption. In the absnece of that, if you feel that he is a threat to you, you can file a petition for harassment or domestic violence injunction, depending on the facts of your case. If he has been abusive with your child, you can file a child abuse injunction to keep away from the child as well. I can't answer what your chances are either way, since you offer no facts as to why he is dangerous or what he has done to you or the child iin the past.... Read More

the answer is yes, except the odds of your prevailing are probably not good; if both of you are working, it is quite routine for the court to allocate the tax dependency exemption between both of you. Placement would not be a factor, as much as what you both do for a living, how much you both make in gross annual income, and who would arguably benefit more economically with taking the exemption.... Read More

One would need to see the exact language in the court order to allow you to "buy out" the exemption, as well as knowing what your gross incomes were for the tax year in question, to determine who benefits from taking the child as a tax dependency exemption, and what the "buyout" should be. You are not misinformed. We just need more information to answer your question. You also have the right fo file a contempt motion against your ex, if you believe they are not complying or cooperating with the court order. They can't just ignore you.    ... Read More

First off, you are required under Wisconsin law to file the original Will in probate within 30 days of the decedent's death. It is filed in the county of where they were residing. If the estate is "bankrupt" you would be required to do a procedure called "summary administration."  It would be akin to doing a bankruptcy if the person were alive. At no time do you as the executor or personal representative of the estate, have personal liabilty to pay off the debts and finanical obligations of the decedent. The estate is responsible. You would be acting as legal authority for the estate only. It  would be best to sit down with an attoreny in your area to discuss what you need to do who is experienced in probate and estate matters.... Read More

I would say that a business failure probably does not constitute marital waste. Many new businesses fail; one would need to know what type of business it was, how long she was in business, why it failed, and why you decided to keep throwing money at it to keep it going. If her business venture was high risk and completely out in left field, it could arguably fall under marital waste.... Read More

There is a statute in Wisconsin that allows the court to consider third party visitation. It is so called "the grandparent's statute."  There is a leading US Supreme Court case, Troxell v. Granville, and that case basically stands for the proposition that a parent's preference to refusing grandparent visitation is paramount over the grandparent's desire to have visitation; to have state involvement in such matters, there has to be special concern to override the wishes of the mother or father against grandparent or other third party visitation. Obviously, the best interests of the child come to mind. If the grandparents don't overreach with their request to allow some limited visitation and contact with the child, the court more likely than not,will allow it. If the grandparents over reach and want to substitute the father's time for their time, more likely than not, they will probably be shot down. The fact that there is a guardian ad litem, under Wisconsin law, is necessary, so the child has an advocate in court to determine whether the visitation should be allowed and whether that is in the child's best interest. Is there a particular reason why your daughter does not want to allow the paternal grandparents  any visitation?... Read More

Unless your divorce papers gives your ex the "right of first refusal", you are not necessarily obligated to give placement of your time to your ex spouse. However, they are entitled to their placement schedule, regardless of whether you are going to be gone or not; your post doesn't indicate what your plans are for who is going to take care of your child(ren) while you are gone, but whatever those arrangements might be, they will have to help in allowing your ex their every other weekend schedule while you are away. Is there a particular reason you wouldn't allow your ex to take care of your chil(ren) while you will be gone for the 3 weeks, as opposed to placing your child(ren) with some other third party, whether other family members or friends?... Read More

Slip and fall cases are very difficult to pursue and win; I wrote a blog about this at our firm's web site; the cases are routinely denied by the insurance company; you need to show that the owner of the property did something wrong or in your case, knew there was a hazardous condition and did nothing to clean it up. Your injury is obviously serious and I am sorry you were badly hurt.... Read More

If this is a Wisconsin case, you cannot move out of state or more than 150 miles within the state from the other parent without proper advance notice to the other parent, (60 days advance notice) and giving them the notice to have the right to object within 15 days. Did the mother provide you with the statutory notice? If the mother is moving away within the state, but less than the 150 mile distance, file a motion if you object to the move to modify custody and placement.... Read More