Custody ruling draws sharp dissent
The court discharged the Guardian ad Litem Program and the assigned guardian ad litem, finding that the duties and obligations were fulfilled
Courts (and the legal field in its entirety) should choose civility
There are frequent reminders for lawyers in Continuing Legal Education (CLE) programs and articles on the importance of civility among adversaries. Civility, like all good lessons, should flow from the top down, as children learn from their parents. In law, that means civility starts with the judges and court commissioners.
The age of settlement: Peace rather than war
For a number of years, I’ve put together a family law cases update program for the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, the State Bar Family Law Section and the state family court judges.
Lawsuit: Agency wrongfully imprisoned children
Illinois Department of Children and Family Services wrongfully incarcerated hundreds of children in juvenile detention after a court ordered them to be released to their guardian, according to a class action lawsuit filed Thursday by Cook County's public guardian.
Looking back: The best and worst of 2022
One of my favorite columns is to review family law cases and legislation from the prior year. It gives me yet another opportunity to express my thoughts on the good and the bad that occurred. Fortunately for me as a columnist, there was enough bad to make this column (hopefully) somewhat entertaining as “good” tends to be boring.
Out of the mouths of babes
While a child of 16 years with a car is going to make his or her own decision about placement, do we really want to give a 7 year old that authority?
The right to self-represent
In 1975, The United States Supreme Court held that a criminal defendant has a constitutional right to waive counsel and self-represent in a criminal case. Faretta v. California, 422 U.S. 806 (1975). While the trial court has a responsibility to discourage self-representation, it cannot prohibit it. The result can be (and usually is) the circus occurring in the Waukesha trial of the Christmas par[...]
A resource for family law cases
Ten years ago, the average number of cases to report on, between Wisconsin Supreme Court and Court of Appeals (published and citeable unpublished cases) was 15-20 per year. So far this year, there have been zero Supreme Court cases, one published Court of Appeals case and four citeable unpublished Court of Appeals cases.
Closing a law practice: Not as simple as it seems
After 38 years as a family law attorney with Loeb & Herman LLC, I have joined JAMS as a neutral in its Wisconsin office.
Courts meant to serve the public
Here's a simple idea: Courts should serve the public. In particular, parties should be allowed to be divorced without the costs and inconvenience of a public court appearance.
Herman re-certified by National Board of Trial Advocacy
Family Law Attorney Gregg Herman has been re-certified by The National Board of Trial Advocacy as a senior specialist in family law.
Will courts really enforce proposed financial information exchange rules?
In law, as in many things in life, some ideas are better in theory than in practice. It is not uncommon that the Legislature, which has precious few lawyers (most sessions have ten or fewer lawyers out of 133 state Senators and Representatives, and almost none of them has ever been in the private practice of law), passes legislation which sounds good on its face but has a different practical effec[...]
Legal News
- Amended complaint filed in federal court against State Bar of Wisconsin seeks punitive damages
- United Healthcare suit against cancer drug distributor time-barred
- Trump’s Wisconsin visit warns of jail time if he violates a trial gag order
- Dane County court overturns residential solar decision
- Judge faces formal complaint from state board
- Bankruptcies up 16% in U.S.
- (Updated) Wisconsin law enforcement clash with pro-Palestinian Madison protestors
- Gov. Evers seeks applicants for Lafayette County Circuit Court
- Complaint against University filed by Wisconsin law firm over $1.9M given to Palestinian students
- Hush money trial judge raises threat of jail as he finds Trump violated gag order, fines him $9K
- Active shooter ‘neutralized’ outside Wisconsin middle school
- Audit finds Wisconsin Capitol Police emergency response times up, calls for better tracking
WLJ People
- Power 30 Personal Injury Attorneys – Russell Nicolet
- Power 30 Personal Injury Attorneys – Benjamin Nicolet
- Power 30 Personal Injury Attorneys – Dustin T. Woehl
- Power 30 Personal Injury Attorneys – Katherine Metzger
- Power 30 Personal Injury Attorneys – Joseph Ryan
- Power 30 Personal Injury Attorneys – James M. Ryan
- Power 30 Personal Injury Attorneys – Dana Wachs
- Power 30 Personal Injury Attorneys – Mark L. Thomsen
- Power 30 Personal Injury Attorneys – Matthew Lein
- Power 30 Personal Injury Attorneys – Jeffrey A. Pitman
- Power 30 Personal Injury Attorneys – William Pemberton
- Power 30 Personal Injury Attorneys – Howard S. Sicula