The Attorneys at Dixon & Moseley, P.C.
Strong, Trial-Ready Advocates Protecting Your Rights
Historically, parents continued to be parents long after their children become adults, marry, and sometimes have their own families. Many of the parents loan their children money from time-to-time or to purchase their first home. When the marriage turns bad and a divorce is filed, the parents often want their loan(s) repaid. Due to the inherent trust between parents and…
The Indiana Civil Order Protection Act focuses on rapid intervention where domestic violence occurs and/or stalking and/or certain sex offenses. This allows a trial court to review a petition alleging such offenses and issue an ex parte order (without a hearing based on the petition). As a general constitutional principle, due process requires a hearing with all parties present before…
The “argument” section of an appellant’s brief is the life-blood of every appeal. This blog explores some of the key aspects of sound argument drafting. Taking the complex facts of life and applying the law is a daily challenge for lawyers. However, this task becomes more difficult when it involves an appeal and controlling standard of review. The standard of…
Historically, the Indiana Supreme Court has existed since its creation by the Indiana Constitution in 1851. The Indiana Court of Appeals has played a key role in giving all citizens timely and appeals of right since the late 1800s, becoming permanent by constitutional amendment in the 1970s. The efficiency of the entire legal branch of government is important to note,…
With technology and more access to different information on a faster basis, there is much more evidence available to parties, attorneys, professionals, and trial court judges to use making child custody decisions. These need to be identified as early in the divorce process as possible to be useful. Custody evaluators and GAL’s can use and rely on evidence that might…
Most divorces, even highly contentious ones settle outside the court. Today’s trial court judges do a great deal of case management, such as guiding the parties to mediation, appointment of GAL, and custody evaluations. These steps result in most cases settling on the parties terms. The trial court judge must of course approve any agreement, and will not approve one…
While real life domestic litigation is gritty and full of harsh realities of relationships and what happens when they end, there are three important legal lessons Indiana divorce or domestic litigants can take from the new movie or sequel “Ted.” First, everything that is not a child, even a family heirloom, beloved toy or pet is property. There is not…
The United States Supreme Court’s decision to allow same sex couples to marry may be just the beginning of the legal impact of recognition of a fundamental right of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals. There is a push for further protection of the LGBT community to add sexual orientation and gender identity to civil rights laws to protect them…
When the inquiry is made about requesting the court to award attorney fees in domestic relations cases, such as a dissolution, modification of custody, paternity matter, modification of child support, or contempt issue, or protective order the standard answer is, “We can ask”. The American standard is that each party pays their own attorney fees, unless there is a contract…
The decision to file for dissolution of marriage is often a difficult one, and timing is an issue that is to be considered based on the circumstances of the parties, how long they have resided in the area, and myriad other factors that go into the process of untangling a marriage. Service is the legal term that describes a Respondent…