Saint Paul Family Law Blog

As so often in life, when a topic is new to someone, the language related to that topic may be daunting and incomprehensible. The same may hold true when it comes to divorce. One aspect of divorce that may confuse and overwhelm someone in the midst of the situation is alimony.

In Minnesota, alimony is a lawful duty a spouse may have to pay to his or her ex in order to ensure the person is in a similar financial position as before the divorce. At minimum, the support will continue until the beneficiary has found his or her feet financially. Spousal maintenance is not an absolute right, but it may be awarded when relevant. The length of the marriage, as well as career sacrifices made by one person to support his or her partner or in order to care for their children, will be taken into consideration to determine if and how much maintenance should be paid.

Most people have friends, parents, parents' friends or friends' parents who have gotten divorced. Just because it is common, doesn't mean that everyone is intimately familiar with every part of the divorce process. That lack of understanding often extends to the concept of modifications.

After a divorce there are agreements in place that grow and change with families as time goes on. People revisit these deals, regarding child support or alimony, throughout the lives of their subjects and get them modified. Here are five signs that you should get a modification.

Minnesota parents sometimes face complex situations regarding custody of their children. Such situations often lead to litigation in civil court. However, for those who are of Native American heritage, a different type of court may intervene. This is what has apparently happened in another state where the mother of a newborn child is from the Miccosukee tribe and the father is Caucasian. A nasty child custody battle has ensured between the parents and the infant's grandmother.

The baby's mother, who also has two older children, ages 11 and 12, from a prior relationship, says she was still in the hospital after giving birth to her daughter when tribal police showed up in her room, saying she no longer had custody of her child. The woman told the tribal officers that she did not understand what was happening. The tribal officials took her baby from her and granted custody to the child's maternal grandmother.