Assisted by a skilled legal support staff, Winter Law has provided expert legal counsel in a wide variety of areas for 91 years. A sample of those areas is included below:
Attorneys in Antigo, Wausau, Rhinelander and beyond!
BUSINESS ORGANIZATION
There is a wide variety of basic legal formats for structuring a Business Organization. Each type has its own special characteristics, uses and limitations. The proprietorship, partnership, and corporation are the most popular and well known. A newer but increasingly popular form of business organization is a limited liability company.
An attorney can avert many legal issues that may arise in forming these types of businesses and he or he can advise people on the best business formation for their needs. An attorney can also help research any possible issues concerning intellectual property, hiring employees, taxation and other legal matters that can arise when forming and running a business. Further information available at Wisconsin Business Law.
ESTATE PLANNING
Estate planning involves addressing all of a party’s preferences as to financial dispensations pursuant to one’s death, as well as establishing directives for health care and burial/funeral wishes. These include but are not limited to all of the property a person owns or controls, whether in sole name or not, partnership, joint ownership arrangement, or trust, and all other monies that would be generated upon a person’s death, as well as any financial obligations incurred prior to a person’s death. Further information available at Estate Planning.
FAMILY LAW
Family Law is a multi-faceted area of law that deals with family or domestic issues. Family law encompasses such areas such as: adoption, child custody and visitation, children’s rights, child support, spousal support (alimony), separation agreements, civilian and military divorce (dissolution of marriage), marital property division (equitable division), elder law matters, estate planning, estates and trusts, wills and will contests, probate, insurance, cohabitation agreements, pre-marital (pre-nuptial) agreements, marriage and other legal issues pertinent to the family. Further information available at Wisconsin Family Law.
PERSONAL INJURY
Personal injury falls under Tort Law. Personal Injury involves civil law cases where one tries to obtain compensation for an injury sustained. Physical injuries to your person could arise from being involved in an automobile accident, a railroad accident, airline or other common carrier accident, a construction or other workplace accident, being injured as a result of a dangerous or otherwise unsafe product and other injury-causing situations. However, injuries needn’t be physical-they could be psychological. Psychological injuries are typically caused by psychological trauma associated with life-threatening and/or disfiguring physical injuries, or as a result of witnessing trauma to others, or following escape from serious injury following a traumatic event. Before one can collect an award, a personal injury lawyer will have to prove that the defendant is liable. To prove liability, the attorney must also establish negligence.
If there is any failure on one’s part to exercise reasonable care to prevent injury or damage then there may be comparative (or contributory) negligence, where both involved parties are at some degree of fault. If one wins, they may receive money (an award) to compensate for medical costs, lost wages and lost future earnings and possibly also for pain and suffering and punitive damages.
*A tort is a civil wrong recognized by law as grounds for a lawsuit. Torts fall into three general categories: intentional torts (e.g., intentionally hitting a person); negligent torts (causing an accident by failing to obey traffic rules); and strict liability torts (e.g., liability for making and selling defective products). These wrongs result in an injury or harm constituting the basis for a claim by the injured party (tort litigation). While some torts are also crimes punishable with imprisonment, the primary aim of tort law is to provide relief for the damages incurred and deter others from committing similar harms. Further information available at Personal Injury Law.
PROBATE
The legal process by which property is transferred upon a person’s death is called “Probate Law.” Although probate customs and laws have changed over time, the purpose has remained much the same: people formalize their intentions as to the transfer of their property at the time of their death (typically in a will), their property is collected, debts are paid from the estate, and the remaining property is distributed.
Probate Administration
Today the probate process is court-supervised process and designed to sort out the transfer of a person’s property at death. Property subject to the probate process is that owned by a person at death, which does not pass to others by designation or ownership (i.e. life insurance policies and “payable on death” bank accounts). A common expression used in probate administration “probating a will.” This describes the process by which a person shows the court that the decedent (the person who died) followed all legal formalities in drafting his or her will. Further information available at Probate.
REAL ESTATE
Real estate transactions are governed by federal statutes, as well as state statutory and common law. Real Estate Law encompasses these statutes and laws, as well as property law matters. Real estate law includes a wide variety of legal issues relating to acquiring, financing, developing, managing, constructing, leasing and selling commercial and residential real property of all kinds, including:
Real estate transactions relating to representation, litigation, consultation and negotiation of mortgages, mortgage re-financing, reverse mortgages, 1031 tax-deferred exchanges, residential purchase and sale agreements, commercial purchase and sale agreements, residential leases, and commercial leases (e.g., office, medical building, restaurant, industrial property, or shopping center).
Real estate disputes, including disputes over adverse possession, prescriptive easements, eminent domain, condemnation, property taxes, title and boundaries, views, trees, branches, party walls, fences, as well as nuisance, trespass and encroachment, as well as sale disputes (e.g., breach of contract, specific performance, non-disclosure, fraud or misrepresentation).Real estate broker issues, including claims against and defense of real estate brokers and agents including negligence, fraud/misrepresentation, breach of fiduciary duty, disclosure obligations.
Construction defects and mechanic’s liens.
Land use and zoning matters, including representation of property owners before governmental entities (cities, counties, zoning boards, design review boards) relating to land use applications, permits variances, zoning exceptions, design review approvals, and special use permits, as well as common interest communities, including interpretation and enforcement of Covenants and Conditions & Restrictions (CC&R’s). Further information available at Real Estate Law.