The Attorneys at Dixon & Moseley, P.C.
Strong, Trial-Ready Advocates Protecting Your Rights
The number of appeals in Indiana is small compared to the overwhelming number of cases tried in Indiana’s trial courts each year. Correspondingly, there are only a few more than twenty appellate judges and senior judges who decide appellate cases. There are few attorneys who handle appears on a regular basis. On occasion, the small appellate bench and bar get…
Perjury, meaning lying under oath, is a crime in Indiana—and all states. You can also commit perjury by signing a form under penalty of perjury when you know the information you provide is not true or accurate. You have probably heard someone say everyone lies in divorce. This blog discusses distortions versus perjury1 in divorce and what you need to…
The Four Cardinal Rules You Must Follow It may seem like an odd blog post, How to “win” your divorce case in a bench trial. The law is applied to the facts by the judge who then decides the case, right? Not necessarily. Judges are impartial, but a case can be won or lost by an unprepared litigant or attorney…
Expert witnesses are common in criminal and civil cases. There are all types of experts, such as use of deadly force in criminal cases to custody evaluators in divorce and paternity cases. To be qualified as an expert, he or she must pass the Daubert test. This standard or test comes from a United States Supreme Court case, but is…
In many civil cases, particularly divorce preliminary and final hearings, the judge receives many types of information or evidence, from who should have the house, to the division of accounts and debts, to forks and household items. Despite the clearest testimony and diligence of judge, it is hard to identify and track all of this information for the attorneys and…
In complex or high asset divorces, attorneys sometimes face property, such as a vacation home, located abroad. The question becomes, “is this part of the marital estate?” Yes. All property no matter where located is marital property. Indiana subscribes, under the Dissolution Act, to the one pot theory where all assets brought into the marriage, acquired during the marriage, or…
Every day, trial courts issue tens of thousands of orders. Most of these orders are “interlocutory” in nature and are made to help the case progress. It is only when an order disposes of all of the issues that it is a final order. There is generally an automatic right to appeal Indiana Court of Appeals. Appealing a final order…
In Indiana, it a now clearly crime to send (disseminate) matter harmful to “minors”.1 In 2009, this statute was held unconstitutional because the age of consent to sexual activity was 16.2 The legal reasoning was if one can consent to sexual activity at 16, one can receive nude photos. In the recent Thaker case, Mr. Thaker sent an explicit photo…
As part of a divorce, custody, guardianship or other family law matter, children’s medical records are often sought to address any number of issues. Perhaps the child’s caregiver needs certain medical records for a child to be enrolled in school or an activity/sport. A parent may need the children’s medical records to determine whether child support should continue past the…
In a key case decided by the Indiana Court of Appeals, it clarified two important points about family law and college 529 accounts. These are educational accounts opened by a parent or parents for payment of college expenses for their children, with a parent as an owner and the child as a beneficiary. Normally, a petition for college expenses has…