Firm Overview

Criminal Law

Foster & Grubschmidt has extensive experience representing clients in all criminal matters. These include summary offenses, traffic violations, drug cases, assault and homicide. Unlike many law firms, we do not limit our representation to defendants accused of "non-violent" crimes. If the client asserts he or she is innocent, we will do our utmost to win an acquittal. If the client admits some guilt, then we will provide advocacy which results in the client only being convicted for appropriate charges and receiving an appropriate penalty.

Family Law

Also known as "domestic relations" law, there are many issues and causes of action in this category. Cases can be uncontested, in which the parties agree to certain issues and merely require aid in obtaining court orders to legally effectuate their decisions. On the other hand, cases can be contested, in which the parties cannot come to any agreement and need the services of the lawyer to advocate their positions to win a favorable decision from the Court. The most common areas of this section of the law include:

• Alimony and Support - the payment of money from one spouse to the other;
  
• Custody of Minor Children;
  
• Divorce - the dissolution of the marriage;
  
• Property Division- the equitable division of assets and debts acquired during the marriage; and,
  
• PFAs - Protection from abuse orders in which one spouse has alleged the other spouse has abused him or her or the minor children and seeks to prevent further abuse and, usually, seeks to exclude the alleged abuser from the marital home and any contact with the abused spouse and/or minor children.

Foster & Grubschmidt have extensive experience in these matters, having represented both husbands and wives. Our method is to achieve quick and fair settlement of all issues, when possible. When settlement is not possible, we use our experience and network of experts to achieve the best possible results with the minimum of disruption, pain and cost to our clients and their children.

Family law also can include adoptions. Most often, these cases involve a step-parent seeking to adopt a step-child. We have handled cases in which the absent parent consents and those in which the absent parent contests the adoption. We have also handled cases where parents have sought to adopt a child of a teen mother and are familiar with the laws regarding such. This includes the many special laws regarding adoption of a child in which the adopting parents reside in a state other than that in which the child is born.

Real Estate

Foster & Grubschmidt do not act as closing officers or issue title insurance. However, we do aid in the negotiation and drafting of sales agreements, land installment sales contracts, and represent buyers at closings. We also can refer clients to attorneys who will handle closings and issue title insurance. These services include the sale and purchase of both residential and commercial real estate.

In addition, we have much experience in Landlord and Tenant matters. This includes negotiating leases and explaining the respective duties and meanings of clauses in leases. We represent landlords and tenants. In all cases, we seek to settle disputes and to implement the clients' wishes, whether evicting non-paying tenants or bringing suit against landlords who violate the Landlord-Tenant Act or breach the implied warranty of habitability.

Litigation

Litigation is the adversarial process by which parties sue others or defend themselves from suits in court. Foster & Grubschmidt have successfully prosecuted the claims of plaintiffs and defended defendants in matters concerning Commercial and Business transactions, Real Estate, Professional Malpractice, Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection and conflicts which arise in all other practices areas. It is our goal to win every case.

The court system is designed to be long and painful to all sides. This forces the parties to narrow their issues and, where possible, reach settlement. In all cases, if both sides approach the matter reasonably, the cases should settle prior to trial. However, in cases in which one or both of the parties remains unreasonable, then the case must go to trial. At Foster & Grubschmidt, we seek to minimize the expense and the pain to our clients while trying the cases in a zealous and professional manner. We incorporate the testimony, where appropriate, of experts at the pinnacle of their professions and we utilize the tools of technology. This allows us to quickly respond to the moves made by the opposition and to use the most current legal authorities to win.

Personal Injury

When a person is injured, he or she has various legal rights. Those rights include compensation for economic losses and for pain and suffering. In many cases, the injured person's family also suffers and those family members might have their own claims for their suffering. Most people think of injuries arising from motor vehicle accidents and cases in which a person slipped or tripped and was injured in a fall. Other examples of cases causing personal injury include:

• Assault and Battery
  
• Bad Food/Foreign Object in Food
  
• Dog Bites
  
• Defamation (libel and slander)
  
• Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress
  
• Sexual Harassment
  
• Products Liability

Foster & Grubschmidt handles these cases on a contingency fee basis. This means, we do not charge or collect any fee unless we recover money for the client. We also are often willing to bear the costs of litigation rather than requiring an injured client to pay those costs up front.

Wills and Trusts

This area of the law includes two related, but very different, aspects. The first aspect involves the drafting of Wills and Trusts, Health Care Declarations and Powers of Attorney. In this process, we work closely with the client to discover the client's desires and to draft documents which effectuate those desires. We attempt to provide for the proper closing of our client's affairs, efficient administration of his or her estate and protection of minor children. Through the use of powers of attorney and health care declarations(living wills), we assure that the wants and desires of a client who has become incapacitated are carried out.

The second aspect is that of Estate Administration. Once a person dies, his or her estate - the real property and other assets - passes to his or her heirs. If a person has a will, then the person named as Executor files a petition and appears before the Register of Wills to be sworn in as the personal representative of the estate. If a person fails to name an Executor in the will or dies without a will, then the personal representative who appears before the Register of Wills is the Administrator. Together with the attorney for the Estate, the personal representative gathers, protects and inventories the assets of the estate, pays the final bills and debts of the deceased, files income and inheritance taxes and distributes the property. The attorney often does the majority of the paperwork and provides guidance to the personal representative and the survivors of the deceased.

In some unfortunate cases, an heir is disappointed. He or she might believe he or she was wrongfully left out of the will or his or her rights are being violated by the personal representative. In some cases, the will might have been obtained by fraud or when the deceased was incapacitated or not legally competent. In other cases, the personal representative might be a person of questionable character and the heir might need a counselor to explain his or her rights and, where the estate violates such, to pursue the heirs' rightful claims.