Hennepin County 4th District Family Court Division Selects Minneapolis Family Law Attorney to Serve as Financial Early Neutral Evaluator in a Pilot Project - News Releases - M. Sue Wilson Law Offices, P.A.

Hennepin County 4^th District Family Court Division Selects Minneapolis Family Law Attorney to Serve as Financial Early Neutral Evaluator in a Pilot Project

MINNEAPOLIS (February 27, 2007) – The Hennepin County 4^th Judicial District Family Court Division has appointed Minneapolis Family Law attorney M. Sue Wilson to serve the court as a financial early neutral evaluator as part of its Financial Early Neutral Evaluation (FENE) Pilot Project.

The pilot project is designed to provide parties in a divorce with the option of using an early neutral evaluator to help settle financial issues. The goal is to reach an early financial settlement for the divorce and prevent the parties involved from spending their financial resources on adversarial evaluations and litigation. The project is part of an initiative by the court to expand its offerings of alternative dispute resolution options. The first pilot program for early evaluation was for parenting. Based upon the success of that program, the court decided to expand the initiative to include financial issues including spousal maintenance, non-marital property, valuation of marital property, and qualified and non-qualified plan assets.

Both parties must agree upon the neutral evaluator and are provided the list of evaluators by the court. Each party in the divorce splits the evaluator's fee which is based on a sliding fee scale. The process must be completed within 60 days by either reaching a settlement or notifying the court that one could not be reached. If a settlement is reached, both parties' attorneys work with the evaluator to draft the necessary documents to enforce it.

Any information that is revealed within the context of the evaluation is confidential and cannot be admitted into court unless the document otherwise would have been used if the early evaluation had not been conducted.

Twelve evaluators from Hennepin County and eight from Ramsey County were chosen to join the pilot program. Evaluators are required to attend training in March and April.

Wilson is the past president of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers and has consistently been selected as a Minnesota “Super Lawyer®.” She focuses her practice exclusively on family law and has for more than 30 years. Wilson provides a broad range of family services focusing on complex marital estates, custody issues, spousal maintenance, child support, and property valuations.

Wilson has been influential in shaping Minnesota 's family law and policy through her extensive appellate practice. She has argued more than 60 cases before the Minnesota Court of Appeals and currently has a case pending before the Minnesota State Supreme Court.

Wilson graduated with a Juris Doctorate from Stanford Law School in 1974.

M. Sue Wilson Law Offices, P.A. are located in Minneapolis and is a progressive, approachable, and community-minded law firm. To learn more, visit www.msuewilsonlaw.com.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The Hennepin County Board plans to highlight the FENE Pilot Project during its February 27, 2007 board meeting.