Stillings & Buchinger LLC

Information may not be reliable

compassionate - Caring - Experienced - Proven
Most legal matters involving a family law attorney also involve life changing events such as divorce or custody of your children, or life enabling decisions such as child support or family maintenance. When the outcomes of legal issues - whether they be collaboratively agreed to or ordered by a court - will affect your children, your home and your future financial security, you want and need to know that the law firm in whom you place your trust is committed to you, experienced and proven, and that they understand your situation. Stillings & Buchinger is just that law firm.
Stillings & Buchinger, LLC was founded on a tradition of excellence. Family law and divorce matters are not just a part of Stillings & Buchinger's legal practice; rather, it is their entire professional focus. For more than two decades, Attorney Gordon Stillings and Attorney Melody Buchinger have compassionately devoted their legal practices to people for family law and divorce matters, aggressively litigated the most complex marital property issues and the most emotional custody issues, and helped people mediate differences and collaboratively resolve issues to form a lasting relationship beyond the final divorce order. Attorney Stillings was one of the first Wisconsin lawyers to embrace collaborative divorce law, and both attorneys are certified collaborative divorce lawyers. As well, both attorneys have served as Family Court Commissioners (judges presiding over divorce, custody and support cases).
Stillings & Buchinger, LLC invites you to contact the law office for a free initial consultation regarding your family law and divorce matters.
For general information about the types of family law and divorce matters handled by Stillings & Buchinger, LLC, please refer to the information below or click on the links to the left. For legal advice, please contact the law offices of Stillings & Buchinger, LLC.
wisconsin divorce laws
In Wisconsin, a divorce begins when a petition for divorce is filed with a Wisconsin Circuit Court that has jurisdiction over at least one of the spouses. The petition asks the court to order a legal separation of the spouses and enter temporary orders regarding the spouses' marital property including temporary possession of the family home, child custody including temporary legal custody, temporary physical custody and visitation schedules, and temporary support including child support and family maintenance. A divorce can be pursued through contested divorce, uncontested divorce, stipulated divorce, and collaborative divorce law.

Collaborative divorce law provides an alternative divorce method to the adversarial and often controversial methods. Collaborative divorce proceedings provide the legal security of individual counsel, the expert advice of legal and financial advisors, and a higher degree of privacy. Cooperative divorce is a term sometimes used to refer to the collaborative divorce process; while collaborative divorces are cooperative, collaborative divorce lawyers receive extensive training in collaborative law issues before being certified by the Collaborative Divorce Association.

Wisconsin child custody law uses two common terms relative to child custody: legal custody and legal placement. A petition for divorce will ask a court to temporarily order both legal custody and legal placement. That temporary custody order is usually in place until the final judgment of divorce. A court custody order can be enforced, usually through court action, or modified by court order. Note that stipulations between parties (see Stipulated Divorce) must still be approved by a court. See also collaborative divorce.
child support - family support
Wisconsin support laws use three terms relative to support issues. Child support - an obligation to support a child. Family support, which can include child support and spousal support (alimony), and is typically called Family Maintenance.
Support is ordered by a court, madated by law, and subject to change or modification. Support orders may be modified by stipulation between the parties upon court approval, collected under the Department of Workforce Development, and enforced or modified.
wi divorce procedures
In Wisconsin, a divorce begins when a petition for divorce is filed with the Wisconsin Circuit Court that has jurisdiction over at least one of the spouses. The petition asks the court to order a legal separation of the spouses and enter temporary orders regarding the spouses' marital property including temporary possession of the family home, child custody including temporary legal custody and temporary physical custody, and support including child support and family maintenance.

A Guardian ad Litem is an attorney appointed by the court to advocate for the best interests of the child or children involved in a legal proceeding such as a divorce, custody dispute, paternity lawsuit, adoption or termination of parental rights.
Both Attorney Gordon Stillings and Attorney Melody Buchinger will work with Guardian ad Litem attorneys during legal proceedings, and both have been appointed to serve as a Guardian ad Litem in cases in which they were not representing one of the litigating parties.
A Guardianship, on the other hand, can also refer to situations in which a person needs to petition the court for a guardianship of another person. Those types of cases might involve an adult child seeking a guardianship of his or her disabled parents, a parent seeking a guardianship over his or incapacitated adult child, or grandparents seeking guardianship over their minor grandchildren. An attorney at Stillings & Buchinger would represent the person petitioning the court for the guardianship.
Wisconsin divorce Lawyers
Eastern - Central Wisconsin - Neenah - Menasha - Appleton - Fond du Lac
Attorney Gordon Stillings and Attorney Melody Buchinger represent people throughout Wisconsin. Attorney Stillings is a certified mediator who routinely mediates divorce and other legal matters across central and eastern Wisconsin. Both attorneys are certified collaborative divorce lawyers, and both attorneys represent people in all family law and divorce matters. They frequently represent people who reside in Neenah, Menasha, Appleton, Oshkosh, and Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, as well as Green Bay, Manitowoc and Sheboygan, Wisconsin.
finding a legal counselor who cares & you can trust
The family law and divorce lawyers at Stillings & Buchinger, LLC, Attorney Gordon E. Stillings and Attorney Melody Buchinger understand how critical it is for you to find a family law or divorce lawyer that you can trust. They are pleased to offer you an opportunity to meet them, outline the details of your situation, and talk with them over a cup of coffee to ensure that they are the right lawyers to handle the most important and often times life-changing events of your life. For a free initial consultation, please contact the law offices to schedule a time with Attorney Gordon Stillings or Attorney Melody Buchinger.

The information at this website is not nor is intended to be legal advice, and may be current. The use of this website cannot form an attorney-client relationship. Please do not send confidential or timely information via the Internet. Please read the disclaimer: Stillings & Buchinger LLC Disclaimer