You can count on some strange laws being proposed every election cycle and 2012 is no different. A law has been proposed in the Minnesota Senate last week to 1) allow contested divorces with minor children and 2) required a 2 year waiting period if their are kids.
If this law goes through it will a monumental change in the way divorce is handled in Minnesota. Currently, you only need to have lived in Minnesota for 6 months and claim an irretrievable breakdown of the marriage to be divorced. Or to put it another way, one party says “I want out”.
The proposed law is, in my humble opinion, a throwback to a different era. I’m not saying it’s a better or worse era, but it is a different era. With the divorce rate what it is today along with rising domestic abuse and all that entails it seems this may be a bill that causes more problems that it solves. I’m not sure making a husband live with a wife (or vice versa) for two years if one of them refuses to go to alcohol treatment is a smart idea.
What I am sure about is that this would would be great boon to private investigators, which are very rarely used in Minnesota divorces. Also, this would raise the cost of a divorce by an incredible amount. Off the cuff, I suspect dragging divorce cases out a minimum of 2 years and making us a “fault-divorce state” will easily double the average divorce cost.
So, with the only winners being Michael Massey and Gus Petch (the private investigators in a great Coen Brothers movie) the Governor and House may want to give considerable thought if this is a law which should be passed.
Information obtained in mankatofamilylaw.com may contain knowledgable content about Minnesota Family Law that may be considered beneficial to some; however, in no way should this website or its contents be considered legal advice. Mr. Kohlmeyer is a Minnesota licensed Attorney and cannot provide legal services or guidance to those outside of Minnesota. If you wish to retain Mr. Kohlmeyer as your Attorney in Your Family Law matter, contact 507-205-9736.