Something special about the trust accounting guides is that last year we decided to make them available to the public. The change was partly inspired by Minnesota Legal Ethics, which we also published last year, and also motivated by the overarching desire to better the legal profession. You can read more about the decision here.

So, if you want a copy of the guide:

Members can download the guide here.

Non-members go here and fill out the form to request a guide. You will receive an email with a link to download the guide.

The Lawyers Professional Responsibility Board has more general information about keeping trust accounts in  Appendix 1 to the Minnesota Rules of Professional Conduct (Maintenance of Books and Records).

What accounting software (if any) do you use for your trust accounting? Did you get help setting up your trust accounting or figure it out on your own?

© Andrea for Practice Blawg, 2012. | Permalink | No comments yet | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: IOLTA, Trust Accounting

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Lots happening to impact the practice of family law…

New Rules

Amended family law rules went into effect on May 1. You can read the amendments here.

Of note, the changes update terminology, streamline proceedings, and create three new forms. The changes came out of Divorce Camp 2009, with goals of making the rules reflect current practice in the District Courts and of making the rules more user-friendly for pro se litigants.

New Forms

The new rules require three new forms for all actions pending on the effective date of May 1 and to those filed thereafter.

1. Parenting/Financial Disclosure Statement
2. Certificate of Settlement Efforts
3. Initial Case Management Statement

These new forms are available at the Minnesota Judicial Branch website.

H.F. 322: Presumption of Joint Custody

This controversial bill is currently in the Senate. From the MSBA’s Capitol Connection email and blog:

JOINT PHYSICAL CUSTODY BILL ADVANCES IN SENATE

HF322, a bill that would alter Minnesota’s parenting time baseline presumption, was heard for a second time in the Senate Judiciary Committee, where it was re-referred after being altered in the Senate Health and Human Services Committee. The Judiciary Committee voted to send the bill, which is opposed by the Family Law Section, to the Senate Finance Committee without a recommendation. The version of the bill that passed the House last month would raise the current presumption of 25% physical custody to 45.1%, and would only allow the presumption to be overcome by proving, to a clear and convincing standard, the type of mistreatment that would trigger child protection proceedings. The presumption would therefore override the longstanding “best interests of the child” factors in most contested cases. The Senate Judiciary Committee eliminated most of the House language and set the presumption at 35%.

The Senate Finance Committee passed the bill today and sent it to the Senate floor. If the bill becomes law, a wave of custody modification requests is expected to strain the court system, but no plan has been offered to cover the increased costs, which, because of delayed effective dates, may not occur until the state’s next fiscal biennium.

Future updates will be posted here.

South Dakota recently rejected a similar bill. Consider contacting your local elected official to express any concerns about this bill.

practicelaw Family Law Forms and Advisory Group

I’m working on expanding the family law forms library on practicelaw. Of note:

1. A few months ago we added a Complaint to Establish Paternity (FAM-300), thanks to Central Minnesota Legal Services. Last week we updated it to reflect the new Rule 314 (Parentage Proceedings).
2. We are planning to add forms regarding custody outside of a dissolution,  adoption (step and international), and third-party custody, plus a few other miscellaneous forms.
3. The J&D is regularly reviewed and updated. If you have a suggested change, please let me know. The form is here (FAM-680)

We need help with our new forms! We are in need of forms for international adoption and a financial affidavit for child support – if you have one that you would be willing to share, we will edit and format and give you credit on practicelaw.

We would also like to assemble a group of family law practitioners who we (I) can consult from time to time to ask questions as I update our forms. If you are interested in answering questions or reviewing language occasionally, please let me know. You can contact me by email.

© Andrea for Practice Blawg, 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Judgment and Decree

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To survive and flourish in tough economic times, lawyers must find ways to practice more efficiently. The first step in handling any client or practice matter is to gather pertinent resources and get a sense of the “forest through the trees.” To this end, practicelaw has added “At-A-Glance” mindmaps (part of our Jump Start series) to its arsenal of forms, checklists, links, and articles. The maps are designed to get an attorney up to speed quickly by collecting resources and showing their interrelationship.

We don’t have expertise in every area of law, but we are very familiar with MSBA practice resources as well as non-MSBA resources, and how they might help an attorney. We started experimenting with this concept several months ago and settled on using mind maps to illustrate the resources available on a couple of topics:

• “law 101″ or overview topics of areas of law or issues
• “hot topics”
• technology topics for lawyers

Last week we posted mind maps which visually depict information and resources available on

• Basic Estate Planning
• Documents Involved in the Purchase of Sale of Residential Real Estate
• Managing Law Student Loans
• Finding a Legal Job in Minnesota

We’ve also provided instructions to help you navigate around the maps, follow the links, access information.

The beauty of a mind map is its ability to convey more information, show relationships more easily, and communicate faster than text alone. One of the attorney presenters at the ABA Technology Conference last April showed how he uses mind mapping software as a practice management tool and a litigation aid. Harvard, UCLA, William and Mary are a few of the law schools that have purchased mind mapping software to use with their students. As law schools employ more visual teaching methods, more students graduate and bring to the legal profession a knowledge and appreciation of the ability of visuals to communicate.

In the coming months we will add to our collection. The maps are a great way to save you time in getting up to speed and in finding pertinent resources. Check them out and let us know what you think.

© Nancy Hupp for Practice Blawg, 2012. | Permalink | No comments yet | Add to del.icio.us
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If you have used practicelaw in the last year, please take this year’s short survey:
http://pxlaw2011.notlong.com/

If you have not used practicelaw in the last year, please email me nhupp@mnbar.org and let me know why not.

practicelaw is a MSBA member benefit and surveys are one way to determine how well we are meeting the needs of our members. Your input is critical.

Thanks much -

© Nancy Hupp for Practice Blawg, 2011. | Permalink | No comments yet | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: survey

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Lindquist and Vennum’s Bob McLeod has been instrumental in the current revision process, as he was in the initial development of the forms and subsequent revisions. Many of the substantive updates are a result of his expertise, and we are very grateful to be working with him during this process.

For more information on what has changed and why we decided to revise the forms, see our first post announcing the revised forms.

Revised Forms

The forms are on 3 pages: Guardianship, Conservatorship, and Joint Guardianship and Conservatorship (with forms for minors on each page). Revised forms posted in November are:

• GC-12G – Notice of Intent to Dispose of Clothing, Vehicles, Furniture, or Other Personal Effect
• GC-13s through 14s – forms regarding Discharge of Conservator
• GC-16s – Orders Allowing Final or Annual Accounts, Discharging Conservator
• GC-17s through GC-20s – forms regarding Emergency/Temporary Guardianship/Conservatorship (minor and adult)
• GC-21s through 24s – various forms regarding the sale of real estate in a Conservatorship. Note: The 21-series forms were renumbered. Previously they were GC-21JTxx, and they are now GC-21Cxx, which is more consistent with the fact that these forms pertain only to conservatorships. They will still appear on the joint guardianship and conservatorship page as they may be needed for a joint proceeding.
• GC-25s through GC-27s – forms regarding Restoration to Capacity
• GC-28C – Notice of Claim
• GC-28G – Petition for Termination of Guardianship and Discharge of Guardian
• GC-29G – Order Confirming Termination of Guardianship and Discharge of Guardian
• Misc-4 and Misc-5 – In Forma Pauperis forms

Click here for a list of forms revised in June, and here for a list of form revised in September.

How can you check whether the form you’re using is updated? Check the date in the footer of the form. June 2011 and later are revised.

Other Important Revisions

The Order Appointing Conservator (GC-08C and GC-08JT) was republished with new paragraphs in the Conclusions of Law. Prior versions stated that the Respondent was incapacitated. This is the requirement for a guardianship but not a conservatorship, so the orders were updated to reflect the appropriate standards under the conservatorship statute.

The Petitions and Affidavits of Service, which were published in June and September, respectively, were updated to change new language from “interested parties” to “interested persons.”

Retired Forms

Please note that we’ve taken down several forms, mostly due to duplication. These forms were also retired:

• GC-21JTV – County Assessor’s Market Evaluation
• Misc-1 and Misc-2 forms – Petitions and Orders for New Letters. These were a holdover from the transition to the new statutes under the UPC in 2003. All guardianships and conservatorships should have been transitioned by now.
• All PDFs (All duplicates of the Word forms, and had low usage. More information in our earlier post.)
• Several joint guardianship/conservatorship forms which were identical to conservatorship-only forms.

If you are looking for one of the retired JT (joint guardianship and conservatorship) forms, look for the form with the same number but with a C instead of the JT designator. These forms have always been identical except for the caption, and on this round of editing we decided that even the caption did not need to be different — it is appropriate to say just “conservatorship” on these matters even if there is also a guardianship.

As always, let us know if you have any comments, questions, or feedback on the new forms!

© Andrea for Practice Blawg, 2011. | Permalink | No comments yet | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: conservatorship, guardianship

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