At 2010 Eastwood Drive, Suite 202 on Madison, Wisconsin's historic east side, amidst an eclectic traditional and contemporary business and residential neighborhood with the feel of a small town, is Attorney Kathleen Reiley's office. In Attorney Kathleen Reiley's office is a Wisconsin family law attorney who has exclusively devoted her practice to helping people with their family law issues. There you will meet with an open and candid reception that seemingly immediately invokes the feeling that you have finally found the single attorney with whom you can work, in whom you can place your trust, and on whom you can rely to obtain the results you seek without the unnecessary ongoing arguments that stall proceedings and increase costs.

Every client's case and fact situation is unique, so that even though the statutes apply to all of the cases, the client's facts may render a result after the application of the statutes and the cases that interpret the statutes totally different than what the client's friend or relative experienced. It is important to ask your attorney questions when you hear the war stories of friends and colleagues to determine whether the outcome in their cases may be similar to the range of likely outcomes in your case.

How This Website Can Help You

Whether you are contemplating divorce, prepared to begin a divorce action, ending a cohabitation relationship, or beginning a relationship and want to protect your family in the future, the choices before you can be numerous, perhaps even overwhelming. Kathy Reiley can help. Kathy will give you very straightforward, honest, and complete answers, but not with the coarseness that often comes with a matter-of-fact tone; she is caring, considerate, kind, and outgoing. Kathy can handle the most complex cases, but the uniqueness of her counseling is the perspective with which she brings life back into the meaning of the moment. This website can help you understand some of the issues involved in a divorce or separation, an adoption or a change of custody, a new support order or an enforcement action, but it pales to bring the effervescent personality behind the name Kathleen Reiley, Attorney at Law.

The menu to the left highlights the main areas of this website. As you peruse the information contained here, you will find links (in bold letters like these) that will take you to more informational pages. If you have any questions about this site, or wish to schedule a confidential meeting with Attorney Kathleen Reiley, please refer to the contact page.

Family Law

The term "family law" is a very general and broad term that refers to all of the areas of law listed below. Twenty years ago, a family was traditionally comprised of a mother, a father, and their children. Today, the "family" can mean a traditional family, but it can also mean a man and a woman cohabitation, or domestic partners of the same sex, or family members or close family friends raising the children of others. Family law includes legal issues about divorce, custody, support, maintenance, adoption, prenuptial, and cohabitation. For a comprehensive overview of Wisconsin family law, please refer to family law.

Divorce

Divorce is the term used to describe the process of dissolving the bonds of marriage. In order for the laws of the state of Wisconsin to apply to a divorce matter, either one or both of the spouses needs to have been a resident of the state of Wisconsin for six months preceding the filing of the action and of the county in which the action is filed for a period of 30 days immediately preceding the filing of the action. When the Respondent (non-filing party) has never lived in the state of Wisconsin, the client needs to discuss with his or her attorney the power of the court to make decisions concerning property, support and maintenance.

Wisconsin divorce statistics for 2005.

Custody - Placement - Visitation

Legal custody is a phrase that refers to the legal relationship you have to your minor child.

Physical placement means the condition under which a parent or legal custodian has the right to have a child physically placed with that party and has the right and responsibility to make, during that placement, routine daily decisions regarding the child's care, consistent with major decisions made by a person having legal custody.

Visitation is used in the statutes to reference time awarded by the court that a grandparent, great grandparent, step parent, or person who has maintained a relationship similar to a parent-child relationship with the child may be entitled to spend with the child. Visitation does not have any legal custodial rights or obligations associated with it.

Wisconsin Statistics - divorces involving minor children.

Mediation

Mediation is a voluntary, confidential process that serves as an alternative dispute resolution method to avoid contested litigation. Many legal issues can be resolved through mediation, including custody disputes, divorces, cohabitation, property division and support related disputes.

Paternity

Adjudication of paternity is the process of establishing that a man is the father of a child in order to establish the paternity, legal custody, physical placement and support of the child.

Support

Child support is the financial support paid by one party or parent to another for the support of a child. In the section about support, Attorney Kathy Reiley provides information about support, as well as links to KIDS and the support calculator.

Family Support is the financial support paid by one party to another for support of a child and spouse or previous spouse.

Grandparent Visitation

Grandparent visitation is an area of law that is confused and confusing in some cases, depending on whether the parents are still married, whether there is an existing family or paternity case or whether one parent is deceased. The guardianship statutes have recently been amended which provide additional protection to grandparents of a child when one parent has passed away.

Family Law Attorney Kathleen Reiley Can Help

If you are considering a divorce, require assistance with the legal disputes between you and your domestic partner, want to obtain legal custody or physical placement of your child, want to discuss grandparent visitation rights to visit with your grandchild, need to pursue a paternity judgment order, or want to speak with an experienced attorney or obtain information about mediation services, please call Attorney Kathleen Reiley or send her an e-mail.