As part of her family law practice, attorney Linda K. Wray lends her Collaborative Law skills to her advocacy for clients in matters pertaining to children. She serves all seven counties in the Twin Cities metro area: Hennepin; Anoka; Carver; Dakota; Ramsey; Scott; and Washington (Stillwater).

Custody and Parenting Time

Conflicts over child custody and parenting time can be the most difficult part of a divorce. With her undergraduate education in psychology and work with children in a variety of settings prior to her law career, including St. Joe’s Home for Children, Wilson Psychiatric Residential Treatment Center and as a teacher in public schools, Linda understands the impact of conflict on children. As your attorney, Linda will use her collaborative law skills and knowledge of children to make these decisions easier. She will explore and evaluate a variety of options with you to come up with a plan you believe will be in your children’s best interests.

One barrier Linda strives to overcome pertains to the very notion of “custody”. This term can unnecessarily project an adversarial tone into the parenting relationship after a marriage has ended. It may suggest that the “non-custodial” parent is no longer a central figure in the children’s lives when, in fact, the children are still loved, and cared for by both parents. Linda works with her clients to explore the legal ramifications of using or not using custody labels and provides them with the option of developing a parenting plan that emphasizes the important role both parents will continue to have with their children after the divorce.

Linda has successfully tried several custody cases, and understands the emotional and financial cost to the children and parents even when her client “wins”. She is committed to working with her clients to develop parenting plans through principled negotiations, with trial as a last resort.

Child Support

How to financially support the children once the marriage ends can be a difficult issue, and one that demands creative rather than traditional solutions. Linda outlines a variety of options for her clients from traditional child support, to Upward or Downward Deviations from traditional child support, to creative expense sharing arrangements. She then works with her client to evaluate the pros and cons of the options and select that which is best of her client and the children. Linda often achieves favorable agreements through negotiations without a formal trial in court. This saves clients money because it saves them the expenses of a trial. It also leaves both parties in the divorce feeling more empowered, knowing they participated in the decision-making process.

After the divorce, as a client’s financial circumstances change, Linda will help her client file or respond to a Modification Motion related to child support.

If you are dealing with parenting and child support matters as part of your divorce proceedings, please contact Linda for effective, thought-out counsel.