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Family Law Team

Our family law team pictured left to right:  Lisa E. Hunter, paralegal; Linda J. Heine, attorney and Shari P. Fischer, attorney.

Family Law

Divorce
Divorce, called Dissolution of Marriage in Minnesota law, is a difficult process for the parties involved on many levels. The emotional impact of a divorce can make it difficult for a person to make important decisions. The financial impact of a divorce can be devastating for a family. Linda works to understand how the divorce is affecting her client as she works to guide the client through the process.

Divorce in Minnesota is a no-fault process, which means the actual dissolution of the marriage will be granted without determining whether one party is at fault for the end of the marriage. The legal issues usually involved in a divorce include division of the property acquired during the marriage, allocation of responsibility for payment of debts incurred during the marriage, determining whether spousal maintenance should be paid by one of the parties and addressing responsibilities for custody and support of minor children of the marriage. Property and debts of a marriage are to be divided equitably between the parties. An equitable division does not necessarily mean an equal division, though most often parties and courts attempt to divide property and debts as equally as possible. Finding an equitable division often involves determining which assets and debts were accumulated during the marriage and are subject to division and determining the value of these assets and debts.

Linda has experience with the complicated issues involved in addressing whether assets or debts are marital or nonmarital. She is comfortable working on cases that involve complex valuation issues such assets of a farm operation or business. When necessary, Linda consults with qualified professionals to provide the information needed to resolve these issues.

Spousal Maintenance and Custody in a Divorce
Spousal maintenance usually takes the form of monthly payments from one party to the other for a period of time following the divorce. Spousal maintenance is paid if one of the parties is unable to support themselves for valid reasons and the other party has the ability to pay support to their former spouse. Spousal maintenance is becoming less common as our world has changed with men and women in the workplace. However, there are many couples who choose to modify their employment or career plans as they raise their children.

Custody of the minor children is decided as part of the divorce proceeding. This means that a formal decision is made as to how the children’s time is divided between their parents and how responsibility for major decisions about the children is divided. Both parents of all children have an obligation to financially support the children. Minnesota laws concerning child support determine how income is shifted from one household to another for the benefit of the children.

Child Support
Child support refers to money paid from one parent to the other for the financial support of their joint children. All children require financial support. Linda recognizes that all parents desire to provide for their children the best they can. Because child support laws can be somewhat inflexible, it is important to have a knowledgeable lawyer assist you with establishing fair arrangements that are consistent with legal requirements and that also meet the needs of the two households involved. With Linda's help, creative parents can find ways to work together to support their children in a manner that is fair and reasonable to both parents.

Child support consists of three parts in Minnesota: base child support, child care reimbursement and medical support. Base support is a set dollar amount for general support of the children. Child care reimbursement is in addition to base child support, but is required only in cases where the children are in daycare. Medical support includes payment for health insurance or medical assistance and division of out of pocket health care expenses. Minnesota law uses a formula to calculate child support that counts both parents' gross income and several other factors to determine all three parts of child support. Information including the parents' gross income, number of children, cost of healthcare insurance, cost of child care, and amount of parenting time goes into a legal formula to determine support obligations.

Minnesota has adopted a child support guidelines calculator to determine child support amounts. Information on the Minnesota child support law and the guideline calculator can be found at http://www.dhs.state.mn.us/. If both parents agree, they can establish child support provisions that vary from the amounts that would be required by the guidelines calculator, however, parents need to be sure that their alternative approach will adequately provide for their children in order for their agreement to be approved by the court.

Custody and Parenting Time
Custody and parenting time are the most important, and often the most difficult issues parents who separate or divorce must address. Parents who choose not to reside together need to make a plan for how their children will be raised and where the children will live. The plan can be made by agreement of the parents or by the court if parents cannot agree. Sometimes child custody is an issue when someone other than a child's parents seeks to provide permanent care for a child, such as grandparents or other family members.

Linda has experience working in all types of custody cases. Every decision related to children in Minnesota is to be based on the best interests of the children involved. As between the parents, the court will look at what type of arrangement will be best for the children involved considering the particular needs of the child and the strengths of each parent. There is no preference in the law for the mother or the father.

The law defines two types of custody in Minnesota: physical and legal.

Physical Custody
Physical custody defines where children reside. Legal custody refers to authority to make important decisions about the child or children. Parenting time is the term used to define the time children spend with each parent. For example, a mother's parenting time refers to the time that the children are with her. The children's residence, or physical custody can be defined as sole or joint. Sole physical custody generally means children primarily live with one parent. In joint physical custody, children live with each parent part of the time. There is no requirement in joint physical custody as to how much time the child lives with each parent. In other words, the law does not require the time be split equally between the parents for joint physical custody.

Legal Custody
Legal custody is the term used to define how major child-rearing decisions are made. Usually legal custody refers to decisions about education, medical and religious matters. Legal custody can also be joint or sole. In Minnesota it is presumed that all separated parents will share joint legal custody. Legal custody does not have anything to do with where a child resides or how much time he spends with each parent. Joint legal custody requires that both parents work together and agree on major life decisions for their children.

Although there is a legal framework for a court to decide custody cases, the best thing for families is for parents to decide how they should work together to raise their children. The emotional and financial cost of litigating custody can be devastating to a family. Linda works to encourage her clients to use creative problem solving to decide on custody arrangements. If an agreement cannot be reached, Linda has considerable experience with custody litigation and is willing and able to go to court if that becomes the only option. However, her experience has taught her that staying out of court is the best thing for the family.

Third party custody
Minnesota courts will consider a request for custody by grandparents or anyone who is not the parents of a child in some limited circumstances. This type of case is called a third-party custody case. Linda has handled several of these cases. The law imposes a heavy burden on third parties seeking custody because Minnesota recognizes a strong preference for allowing parents to raise their own children. However, there are situations where it is not in the best interests of a child to be raised by their parent and it is appropriate for another family member to take on that responsibility.

Modification of Custody and Parenting Time
Sometimes it makes sense to change a custody and parenting time plan that has been in place for a long period of time. This can easily be done if the parents agree. It is best to incorporate agreements to change custody and parenting time plans into a new court order and Linda can assist with this. The law provides opportunities for modification of custody and parenting time arrangements when both parties don't agree. The ability to make changes depends on a number of factors, including the type of change requested and the reasons for the change. If you feel a change in your custody and parenting time arrangement is needed, you should contact Linda to discuss your options.