Legal Question in Family Law in Minnesota

Legal Joint Custody and Parenting Rights in MN

Recently, I was adjudicated the father of my 6 year old song; I was also granted parenting time and legal joint custody of my child. However, after the Judge signed the court papers, I had to go the Court house, and buy a certified copy of it for $5.00. The child's mother, did not. I didn't give her a certified copy because I figured if she wants one, she would go buy it herself. She has the exact copy of the order already, but just not the certified one. Now she has a big shot attorney who says the order is NOT legal, because she was never offically given a copy of the certified order by myself. She was pro se a the time of the agreement. Am I to believe then that she can overturn what we, and a MN judge has already agreed to and granted to me? Should I be getting an attorney now too? Or what do I do first to protect my rights? This woman has been a complete lunatic about the whole process and it took exactly one year to get the first order done. Please advise!


Asked on 3/09/05, 5:34 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
J. Chris Carpenter Harvey and Carpenter

Re: Legal Joint Custody and Parenting Rights in MN

Either the lawyer is misleading you or you misunderstand him. It is important to serve a copy of the court's final decree upon the other side. This is done to start the appeal time from running. You can still do this by serving her a copy of the decree by mail.

Failure to serve her doesn't invalidate the agreement, it can limit the time in which she could appeal the court's decision. However, an argument can be made that if the court issued a 'judgment' rather than an 'order', the 60 day appeal time started to run upon its entry with the court administrator, and whether you served her or not is irrelevant.

Confused? I suggest that you contact a lawyer in person. You may have to pay a small fee to have an attorney review what happened, but I would think that the peace of mind would be worth it.

Good luck!

Herb Kroon

Mankato, Mn.

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Answered on 3/10/05, 9:55 am


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