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Jason Brown

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Jason Brown is a shareholder with  Barna, Guzy & Steffen, where he specializes in divorce and family law. With 25 years of experience, he is ready to provide the answers you need. Call (763) 783-5146 to speak with Jason.

 

Paternity cases involve a situation in which the parents of a child are unmarried, yet the father of the child seeks to establish certain rights, including physical custody, legal custody and parenting time. The gateway to such a claim, however, involves the establishment of paternity in and of itself. In Minnesota, there are just two ways to establish paternity: (1) the execution of a Recognition of Parentage; and (2) a judicial determination (court order) of a parent-child relationship. A “parent-child relationship” is defined as “the legal ……

Continue Reading Judicial Determination of a Parent-Child Relationship in Minnesota Paternity Cases

Equal access schedules with children have become easier to achieve, following amendments to Minnesota’s parenting time modification statute.

Pursuant to caselaw, a parent who sought to achieve a 50/50 parenting time schedule, following the issuance of a divorce decree granting them less, had to demonstrate the child’s home environment with the other parent endangered their…

Spousal maintenance (often referred to as “alimony”) involves one party to a divorce paying the other to assist them with routine household expenses following the dissolution of the marriage. The law in this area is extremely complex. For purposes of this post, it is presumed that an award of spousal maintenance is appropriate among the…

Of the issues involved in a divorce in Minnesota, child support is generally recognized as the simplest to resolve. That does not mean, however, that the determination of basic support, medical support and daycare support is necessarily easy in every case.

Here are some of the more common questions our child support lawyers are asked…

In terms of dividing the assets and liabilities of the parties following divorce, the first step in the analysis involves determining which assets are “marital” and which assets are “non-marital.”

Simply stated, marital assets are those acquired during the marriage, through marital efforts. Non-marital assets are those that one spouse: (1) brings into the marriage;…

At the end of the day, the vast majority of divorces in Minnesota result in an equal division of the marital estate (those assets and liabilities incurred, or accrued, during the marriage.

“Equal division,” however, is not the relevant standard. Pursuant to Minn. Stat. Sec. 518.58, the Court must make a “just and equitable division…

About one-half of the divorce and family law cases our lawyers handle are venued in Hennepin County. Located in downtown Minneapolis, the Hennepin County Family Justice Center provides a central hub for all sorts of resources for litigants doing through a divorce, custody dispute, or domestic abuse proceeding. The nice thing about Hennepin County…

In the vast majority of the divorce cases we handle, the parties own real property. Sometimes that property is a primary residence, while other times the property takes the form of a lake cabin, vacation home, investment property or business property.

Generally speaking, the equity resting in each piece of real estate is subject to…

The question most commonly asked of our divorce (and sometimes custody and paternity) clients involves how much support (either alimony or child support) they may receive, or pay, as part of their case.

The the answer to that inquiry can be rather complex, but the starting point in either situation involves a determination of “income”…

We’re often asked about how long child support payments must be made. Pursuant to Minn. Stat. Sec. 518A.39, Subdvision 5, a “child support obligation in a specific amount per child terminates automatically and without any action by the obligor to reduce, modify, or terminate the order upon the emancipation of the child.”

The answer, accordingly,…