The consequences of a legal fight are not as immediate or as painful as crashing in a race, but they can be every bit as damaging: months of emotional strain, thousands of dollars spent, and in a family case, relationships with children and relatives left strained, sometimes beyond repair.

In a divorce, few issues are as hard to resolve as personal property—the stuff— when people disagree about it.

You may not have heard about what are called forfeiture laws. They allow the police and the prosecution to take property from people accused of crimes — in some cases without a conviction.

It's natural to put off getting a will or to avoid the process altogether. Writing a will means thinking about death and our own mortality, and no one really wants to do that. But avoiding the issue doesn't make it go away. Death happens whether we plan for it or not, and having a will in place makes the process so much easier for the people we leave behind.

Many people think that appealing a decision means that you get a fresh start, a different judge to look at all of the evidence and make a decision. That is not what happens, in appeals, with very few exceptions, a higher court, in Minnesota; the Court of Appeals, looks at the record, and, decides if the trial court made a significant legal error.

We have all been tempted to do it, the court system is agonizingly slow at times, judges do not always make the right decisions, it seems easy just to take care of it ourself.

Ex Parte is one of those legalese terms that few who are not lawyers understand. It came from Latin, an ancient language that was the ancestor of the modern French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and Romanian languages. Some Latin terms find their way into the English language, including the term Ex Parte, which means by or for one party.

That old saying is a little misleading, I think there is a good argument that knowledge is always good, the more one knows the better. The old saying comes up a lot in my line of work, I hear from people who have seen material online that tells them a little bit about how the legal system may work, but, it is not helpful, or, downright harmful to their case. The info they find online may be completely wrong, or, it may be true for a different state, or, a different type of

It is a quote from Spiderman, but, applies to the real world, not just comic strips. I heard it from a prosecutor the other day, he was referring to the impact his decisions could have on people. If he decided to charge a person with a serious crime they could be arrested, held in jail, labelled as a criminal in the media, around the community, in some cases fired from their job. All of this can happen before a trial, before a conviction, before there is any decision that

Almost all family law is made at the state level, for laws to change new laws have to be passed by a majority of the state legislature, both houses, and, signed by the governor. That is not an easy process, in most years we do not see major changes. Unlike many issues in politics, family law does not have a clear party split, on most issues we see Republicans and Democrats on both sides, votes tend to be split between the parties, as opposed to along party lines. First up,

Occassionally, our office received the news every defense attorney loves to see, a charge against a client was dismissed by the prosecutor.

What are the chances of getting a good verdict after a jury trial, what are the chances of the judge ruling in my favor after a custody trial, I have been asked questions like this more times than I can count.

The question comes up all the time; people do not know if they need to show up for court, or, sign a written statement.

When divorces are tough there are usually issues with money. The rules on dividing assets, money, real estate, vehicles, anything of value, are simple, it is generally divided equally, regardless of who earned it, or, whose name is on it. The exception is something that was owned before the marriage, or, a gift to one spouse by family during the marriage, those are called non marital property, and, they go to whoever had them before the marriage, or, received the gift. The

I watch very little TV, but, the shows that I have seen about the legal system vary in how accurate they are, some are almost completely fantasy, others were clearly put together by people who have worked in the legal system, and, are pretty accurate.

Police shows for decades have shown people being arrested and read the Miranda warning, 'their rights', you have the right to remain silent, etc. Many people assume, understandably, that the police have to read those rights when they arrest you, and, if they do not, you may be able to get the case thrown out.

Most people outside of the legal system have never heard of expert witnesses, a critical part of the legal system. Unlike regular witnesses, who can testify about what they observed, or heard, experts can offer opinions. Experts are used to explain a variety of complex and scientific issues, from DNA, to complex business practices, to whether someone has been sexually abused. Experts can be hired by either side in a case, in many cases both sides use experts. They do not

It is one of the foundations of our legal system; someone accused of a crime is presumed innocent unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.