Last year, in the context of divorce, we blogged about enforcement of and challenges to the property division provisions of a marital property agreement, or prenup. Under Wisconsin law, courts must presume that these provisions are valid and enforceable unless the prenup is shown to be inequitable. Caselaw, beginning with…
A friend of the family died recently at age 54. He and his wife had lived apart for several years; they were planning to divorce, perhaps had already started a divorce action. As with most divorces, a variety of problems plagued the marriage, but a big one was his wife’s…
In Wisconsin, parents have an obligation to support their child financially until the child is 18 years old. This support obligation can extend to age 19 if the child is in high school (“pursuing an accredited course of instruction leading to the acquisition of a high school diploma or its…
Maybe you entered a marital property agreement (prenup) prior to your marriage, and now that you are contemplating divorce, you assume there is no point in discussing division of property because the prenup’s provisions will control. Or maybe you are considering signing a prenup as an iron-clad guarantee that if…
Late last year we blogged about our continuing efforts to uncover accurate income information for former spouses/partners despite their efforts to conceal their income or assets. The February 2013 Newsletter from Tracy Coenen and Sequence Forensic Accounting contains a timely discussion of this topic, titled Divorce Financial Analysis: Disappearing Income…
Throughout your legal representation, it is imperative that you respond to your attorney in a timely manner when information is requested. Most often a hearing date is coming up and we must adhere to court deadlines to exchange documentation and provide it to the opposing party. By responding on time…
About once a year here at Wessel, Lehker & Fumelle we encounter an opposing party who is intent on hiding income. A party’s income, of course, is highly relevant information for purposes of setting maintenance (alimony), establishing child support, or changing the amount of maintenance or child support. Some support…
On April 3, 2012, the Wisconsin Supreme Court issued its decision in May v. May. The attorneys at Wessel, Lehker & Fumelle represented Michael May in this post-judgment child support dispute, and have blogged about the case previously. The issue presented in May was whether agreements between parents to set…
Last week I attended the thirty-sixth annual conference of the Wisconsin Inter-Professional Committee on Divorce. One full day was devoted to the topic of the voice of the child in custody and placement disputes. Wisconsin Statutes provide that the “wishes of the child” is a specific factor for the court…
If you’re looking for a Wisconsin court’s assistance with enforcing an order from another state, one trap to be wary of is the differing registration provisions for enforcement of support orders vs. enforcement of custody and placement orders. The Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (UCCJEA) sets forth at…