The question comes up for me all the time. Oftentimes, people do not know if they need to show up for court or simply sign a written statement, called an Affidavit. Here are the rules for an in-person hearing, usually called a trial or an evidentiary hearing: anyone...
This week, our office received the news every defense attorney loves to see, a charge against a client was dismissed by the prosecutor. How does a criminal charge get dismissed? The short answer, either the Court dismisses after a request by the defense, or the...
This past spring some major changes were made to Minnesota Family laws. 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...
It happens every year, summer ends, and, for those of us with kids of certain ages, they go back to school. Back to school is a project even when parents live together, getting supplies, signing up for sports and extra curricular activities, getting schedules sorted...
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 as 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...
It is a common misperception, helped by many TV shows and movies, that police are always required to read you your rights when you are arrested. That is not the case. They only have to read your rights if you are in custody, meaning not free to go, and they are asking...
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...
I spent last weekend at my kid’s soccer tournament, watching my son's games and coaching my daughter’s. If you have not participated in youth sports before it is a great time and extremely rewarding. If your kids are in sports, volunteer to help out coaching,...
That old saying is a little misleading. 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...
This month is the 153rd anniversary of the passage of Section 1983. It is a federal law that most people have never heard of, but they usually have heard of famous cases involving police or government officials being sued under the law for misconduct or abuse of...