Law Blog
Posted on Feb 20, 2012 By Jerry Wallentine
Missouri's paternity disestablishment law, enacted in August 2009, allowed men who have been declared the father of a child by a court or the Division of Family Services to set aside (overturn) ...
Continue reading "Challenging Paternity: statute of limitations" »
Posted on Feb 19, 2012 By Jerry Wallentine
In a recent ruling by the Missouri Court of Appeals for the Southern District, a division of property and debt where the Wife received 93% of the assets and 27% of the debts, and the Husband received ...
Continue reading "Grossly disproportionate assets division overturned on appeal" »
Posted on Feb 17, 2012 By Jerry Wallentine
In a divorce proceeding, a personal injury settlement can be a major asset that will have to be divided between the parties. Missouri uses the "analytical" approach to determine whether the ...
Continue reading "Division of Personal Injury Settlements in Divorce" »
Posted on Feb 13, 2012 By Jerry Wallentine
It has become customary in contract of all kinds to include a provision that no representations have been made unless expressly written in the contract and that the terms of the contract cannot be ...
Continue reading "Divorce settlement agreements must be drafted with care" »
Posted on Feb 10, 2012 By Jerry Wallentine
Trial judge is prohibited from ordering ex-husband to submit to genetic testing where previous divorce judgment found that ex-husband was not the father of child, where child was represented by a ...
Continue reading "Paternity Issue could not be relitigated a second time" »
Posted on Feb 9, 2012 By Jerry Wallentine
Separation Agreement gave Amway distributorship to Wife for monthly payments to Husband. That payment was considered support because nothing else provided maintenance, the payment was in installments, ...
Continue reading "Debt Set Over to Spouse Non-dischargable in Bankruptcy" »
Posted on Feb 8, 2012 By Jerry Wallentine
43 year-old Eli Escalera tried to rob a bank in Stock Island, Fla., "disguising" himself with a pair of shorts on his head. Allegedly, Escalera gave the bank teller a note that said ...
Continue reading "Wearing Shorts Over Your Head Isn't A Good Disguise For A Robbery" »
Posted on Feb 5, 2012 By Jerry Wallentine
Cap on Punitive Damages Withstands Challenges In action under the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act, evidence sufficient for a submissible case against business owner individually included ...
Continue reading "Consumer Protection Punitive Damages upheld" »
Posted on Feb 3, 2012 By Jerry Wallentine
As a criminal defense lawyer , I often visit my clients in custody. I am always surprised to see so many elderly people incarcerated. It seemed to me that the number of elderly people who were ...
Continue reading "Elderly Inmates On The Rise" »
Posted on Feb 1, 2012 By Jerry Wallentine
To allow your partner to take care of things for you if you can't speak for yourself, you must prepare the right legal documents. If you ever become unable to make your own health care decisions ...
Continue reading "Making Financial and Medical Decisions for your Partner" »
Posted on Jan 30, 2012 By Jerry Wallentine
Fourth Amendment Protects Text Messages Cell phone owners have reasonable expectation of privacy subject to Fourth Amendment protections that phone company’s ability to access does not negate. ...
Continue reading "Fourth Amendment protections apply to text messages" »
Posted on Jan 29, 2012 By Jerry Wallentine
The Missouri Supreme Court has recently issued an order that, effective, January 1, 2012, increases the maximum allowable Form 14 child support overnight credit to 50%. Specifically, on the Form 14, ...
Continue reading "Missouri Supreme Court raises child support credit" »
Posted on Jan 24, 2012 By Jerry Wallentine
Statute requires an affidavit to support claims of malpractice against medical provider. Plaintiff sought relief under Missouri Human Rights Act on allegations that hospital’s failure to provide ...
Continue reading "Affidavit required for med-mal cases no matter how Plaintiff characterizes his claim" »
Posted on Jan 23, 2012 By Jerry Wallentine
Kansas Proposed House Bill 2330 would legalize medical marijuana. This law hopes to provide legal protection for medical marijuana patients. The proposed bill will be heard by the House Committee on ...
Continue reading "Medical Marijuana in Kansas?" »
Posted on Jan 20, 2012 By Jerry Wallentine
In a decision by the Supreme Court of Missouri, the Court held that a spouse's contribution to otherwise separate property creates a marital interest that can be divided by the Court. In Missouri, ...
Continue reading "Spouse's contributions to non-maritable property" »
Posted on Jan 18, 2012 By Jerry Wallentine
There are five tests you must meet to claim your partner as a tax dependent. If you financially support your partner (heterosexual or same-sex), you may be able to file a tax return as a single person ...
Continue reading "Claiming your partner on tax returns" »
Posted on Jan 17, 2012 By Jerry Wallentine
With so many people facing bankruptcy in the current climate, it may be good news to know (depending on which side you are on, of course) that the bankruptcy does not allow a person owing a domestic ...
Continue reading "Family support obligations and bankruptcy" »
Posted on Jan 14, 2012 By Jerry Wallentine
Most states, like Kansas, have enacted a version of the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Enforcement Act (UCCJEA). A few, like Missouri, still have the predecessor act, the UCCJA, which operates ...
Continue reading "Court lacked personal jurisdiction to order child support" »
Posted on Jan 10, 2012 By Jerry Wallentine
Trusts where the children are beneficiaries cannot be divided in divorce. The Circuit Court does not have authority to divide assets that are not owned by either spouse in a dissolution of marriage. ...
Continue reading "The children's trust cannot be divided in the divorce" »
Posted on Jan 8, 2012 By Jerry Wallentine
In Kansas, generally the parents will be ordered to alternate years for claiming the children regardless of who is the custodial parent. Generally, this seems the fairest approach since it would be a ...
Continue reading "Who gets to claim children on taxes--differences in MO and KS law" »
Posted on Jan 5, 2012 By Jerry Wallentine
In divorce cases, Kansas law allows an award of attorneys fees (ordering one party to pay the other's attorneys fees) "as justice may require." This means that the judge has broad ...
Continue reading "Attorney fee shifting in Kansas and Missouri divorce cases" »
Posted on Jan 3, 2012 By Jerry Wallentine
Under Missouri Law, certain property is considered to be non-marital, and not part of the division of the marital estate in a divorce proceeding. Non-marital property includes property: Acquired ...
Continue reading "Missouri increases in value of non-marital property will be divided only to the extent of marital contributions" »
Posted on Jan 1, 2012 By Jerry Wallentine
Value of a closely-held corporation must be as fair market value and application of a calculation of value via a buy-sell agreement not related to fair market value is error. Wood v. Wood , No. 96218 ...
Continue reading "Valuation of Closely held Corporation in divorce" »
Posted on Dec 29, 2011 By Jerry Wallentine
As a criminal defense lawyer, I often evaluate whether what the police did was Constitutional in light of the 4th Amendment, regarding searches and seizures. Sometimes the legal issue is clear, but ...
Continue reading "Search and Seizure of Backpack" »
Posted on Dec 28, 2011 By Jerry Wallentine
Annulment in Missouri is applicable to two distinct categories of challenged marriages: Those that are void and those that are voidable. The distinction is that a void marriage is always a nullity, ...
Continue reading "Grounds for annulment under MO law" »