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.

Tagged with: divorce Family Law Gregg Herman

Family Law Attorney Gregg Herman has been re-certified by The National Board of Trial Advocacy as a senior specialist in family law.

Tagged with: Family Law Gregg Herman Loeb & Herman

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 effect. The phrase which attaches to such legislation is “the law of unintended consequences.”

Tagged with: divorce Family Law Gregg Herman

Last weekend, the CBS show “Sunday Morning” did a segment on lawyer advertising. Of course they showed clips from the over-the-top ads which seem to be mostly from Texas. The effect, as one who believes that the practice of law should be more of a profession than a business, was cringe inducing.

Tagged with: Gregg Herman

The first family-law case to be recommended for publication by the Court of Appeals in almost two years makes me wish that it would have been longer. Well, the good news is that when I write my end of the year column for 2022 highlighting bad decisions, I will have a good start.

Tagged with: appeals court Family Law Gregg Herman Julie Valadez

Last month’s column took a look back at the developments in family law for 2021. So, it seems appropriate to dedicate this month’s column to a look ahead to 2022.

Tagged with: Gregg Herman

A few weeks out of law school, I got my dream job. After some short training, I was sent into court and given two instructions: First, don’t f**k up. Second, if you do f**k up, don’t let it get in the newspapers.

Tagged with: Gregg Herman

It’s time for my annual year in review – a look back at those new cases and statutes in family law which improve this area of law and those which, well, not so much.

Tagged with: Family Law Gregg Herman

There is a saying in sports that a tie is like kissing your sister. For an appeal to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, however, a tie would be like kissing your sister after having paid her a lot of money.

Tagged with: Gregg Herman

For about the last thirty years, my side job has been to serve as retained counsel, first for BAPR, then for OLR.

Tagged with: Gregg Herman office of lawyer regulation OLR

My late partner, Leonard Loeb, used to say that every lawyer has at least one case which they think is the cause of most of their headaches and lost sleep. The lawyer thinks “as soon as that case is completed, my life will be so much easier.” But, naturally, as soon as that case does wrap up, there is another one with the same effect on the lawyer.

Tagged with: Family Law Gregg Herman Laura Beck

One of the expected consequences of the COVID epidemic was disputes between parents regarding parenting children.

Tagged with: Gregg Herman

In a previous column, I commented that one of the few silver linings of the dark, dark cloud called Covid-19 is that it has led to an increased use of technology, such as Zoom, and the resulting avoidance of unnecessary costs.

Tagged with: Gregg Herman

There is a saying that you cannot be a little bit pregnant. Well, apparently, you can be a little married.

Tagged with: Gregg Herman

On Jan. 13, 2020, the Wisconsin Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on the question of who can be friends with a judge – at least in the cyber world. The implications of the case may affect the use of ESM (Electronic Social Media) by judges and bring into play the adage “bad facts make bad law”.

Tagged with: Family Law Gregg Herman

The greatest change in the practice of family law in recent years has been the incredibly higher rate of resolution versus settlement.

Tagged with: Family Law Gregg Herman

Among the changes in the practice of family law over the years (and there have been many) none have been as significant as the transition of the practice from litigation focused to settlement focused.

Tagged with: Family Law Gregg Herman

When it comes to employment choices, having a support obligation means that the good ol' USA is no longer a free country.

Tagged with: Employment Family Law Gregg Herman jobs

It’s not that the previous law on relocation was perfect, but the new version, while improving on certain aspects, violates what should be a principal tenet for legislation: Don’t adopt laws, at least parts of which, everyone is just going to ignore.

Tagged with: Family Law Gregg Herman

With a new legislative session underway, once again there are efforts to require Wisconsin family courts to order equal physical placement in every – or virtually every – case.

Tagged with: domestic abuse Family Law Gregg Herman

An interesting article recently appeared in the Wisconsin Lawyer concerning domestic abuse and child custody: Meuer, Gibart & Roach, “Domestic Abuse: Little Impact on Child Custody and Placement”, Wisconsin Lawyer, Vol. 91, No. 11 (December, 2018).

Tagged with: domestic abuse Family Law Gregg Herman

Should Wisconsin prosecutors be held to a higher ethical standard than their constitutional obligation to disclose evidence to criminal defendants?

Tagged with: Gregg Herman office of lawyer regulation OLR Richard Cayo Robert Zapf Sharon Riek Stacie Rosenzweig Wisconsin Supreme Court

Clifford & Raihala senior partner Keith Clifford has been named president-elect of the National Board of Trial Advocacy.

Tagged with: Christopher Rundell Darin Harmon Foley & Lardner Gregg Herman Keith Clifford Loeb & Herman Mallery & Zimmerman Nicole Renouard Ruder Ware

With same-sex marriage now legal in 36 states -- and probably legal in all 50 after the U.S. Supreme Court rules next summer -- same-sex divorces will follow in due course.

Tagged with: divorce Family Law gay marriage Gregg Herman U.S. Supreme Court

If you tell the child’s other parent where you intend to move the child, permission to remove is specific to that location. The removing parent doesn’t have carte blanche to move wherever he or she chooses.

Tagged with: divorce Family Law Gregg Herman

Gray areas are seldom helpful in family law, as divorced parties benefit by definition.

Tagged with: Family Law Gregg Herman Loeb & Herman Patricia Curley retirement

In a recent opinion the District 4 Court of Appeals misapplied Wisconsin statutes regarding the meaning of joint custody.

Tagged with: District 4 Court of Appeals Family Law Gregg Herman Jon Counsell

Everyone agrees that protecting children is a primary goal of our family law system. The difficulty is defining what is truly “best” for children, in order to achieve their best interests.

Tagged with: Family Law Gregg Herman Loeb & Herman

Now that we’re in the thick of winter and as Oscar season approaches, thoughts turn to spending some time at the warm local cinema for diversion.

Tagged with: divorce Family Law Gregg Herman

So-called "constituent bills" are rather common in the family law field. They are introduced by legislators who want campaign contributions and don't like to say "no" to anyone who gives them.

Tagged with: child support Family Law Gregg Herman Joel Kleefisch