Milwaukee County Divorce Law Blog

A group of about 30 to 40 people, including fathers as well as some mothers, grandmothers, and children, demonstrated outside of a Racine County Courthouse recently. Their goal was to raise awareness about fathers' rights issues related to divorce, separation, and child custody. A number of statewide organizations were represented at the rally, including Dads of Wisconsin and Wisconsin Fathers for Children and Families.

Mike Landwehr, of Brookfield, attended the rally representing Wisconsin Father for Children and Families. After divorcing from his wife in 2000, he took a case all the way to the state Supreme Court seeking equal time with his children whom had been primarily placed with their mother. In 2006, Landwehr's appeal was rejected.

Opponents of Wisconsin's domestic partnership registry have mounted a second court challenge to the law claiming that it violates the state constitution, which was amended in 2006 to ban same-sex marriage as well as any arrangements "identical or substantially similar" to marriage. A previous attempt to challenge the registry by going directly to the state Supreme Court failed last year when the court refused to hear the case or rule on its merits.

According to Julaine Appling, president of the group Wisconsin Family Action and one of the plaintiffs in the case, a person could reasonably see the domestic partnership registry as an alternative that mirrors marriage and would therefore violate the constitutional amendment.

In our previous post, we discussed some variations of the typical percentage of income child support calculation, including shared placement, low-income payer, and high-income payer calculations. Here, we will discuss a few other situations including "serial family payers" and other deviations from child support guidelines.

The serial family payer situation arises when an individual with an existing child support obligation incurs an additional child support obligation through a court order. In these circumstances, the child support payer would not pay the first level of the percentage of income standard, 17%, for each child. Instead, a judge would determine which obligation came first and award support for that child, and then award support for the next obligation by looking at the child support payer's leftover income and awarding an appropriate percentage of what is left over.

In our previous post, we discussed the basic "percentage of income" standard as it applies to calculating child support. While that method of calculating support works in many situations, there are a number of custody arrangements and differing circumstances that necessitate other methods of determining support payments.

One common situation giving rise to alternative calculations is what is known as "shared placement." When the percentage of income calculation is used, it is generally assumed that the child is primarily placed with one parent; however, in those situations in which a court has ordered placement of the child with both parents for at least 92 days or 25% of the year, the shared placement calculation is used.

Taking care of their children should be the first priority of parents. Regardless of whether the parents were formerly married or unmarried, providing financial support in the way of child support is a critical responsibility of parents. In Wisconsin, every person has an obligation to support his or her children. To that end, a number of rules and regulations set out the various levels of support and other considerations that are taken into account when determining child support.

Generally speaking, a person owes child support if their child is under the age of 19 and does not have a high school diploma. According to Wisconsin statutes, any time a court judgment is entered that somehow affects the parents or children, a child support order should also be set. One important thing to remember is that child support is only meant to apply going forward, it is not awarded retroactively.

In our previous post, we discussed a study by the University of Wisconsin-Madison that concluded divorce rates among parents with an autistic child were higher than among parents with children that did not have a known disability.

In examining the results of the study, researchers noticed that divorce rates for both groups were high during the early parenting years. However, as time went on, the parents of children without disabilities saw divorce rates drop. According to Sigan Hartly, a clinical psychologist at UW's Waisman Center, this indicates that the very presence of children is extraordinarily stressful on any marriage. This would be most likely due to the added responsibilities that come with caring for any young child.

The interesting difference between the two groups became more noticeable when the children grew up into their teen and early adult years. At that point, the divorce rate for parents with autistic children remained high, while the rate for the other parents began to fall.

A recent study by scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison indicated that the divorce rate among parents of autistic children may be higher than other parents, but it also may not be as high as some previously believed. Contrary to anecdotal evidence that the divorce rate among parents of children with autism spectrum disorder was near 75%, the study found that the rate might actually be closer to 25%.

Autism can include a number of different symptoms and there are many degrees of severity. Autism spectrum disorder is the term used to encompass this wide variety of conditions. On one end, someone with relatively minor symptoms might have Asperger syndrome. On the other end of the spectrum is what would generally be called "classic autism," which includes significant problems communication and social interaction.

Going through a divorce can take a lot out of someone. It is often extremely stressful dealing with your ex spouse, and you may feel overwhelmed with issues surrounding your children and beginning your life over after the end of your marriage. In times like these, it is easy to overlook things, but one area in which it is vitally important to stay focused is your finances.

Often times, one spouse makes most of the financial decisions in a marriage. When that marriage breaks up, the other spouse needs to start making financial decisions for himself or herself. However, even if you previously arranged the finances in your marriage, after a divorce you need to go back and reexamine your finances and update them to account for you new circumstances.