Woods & Brangwin Law Firm, PLLC

The question you want to ask yourself is if you want your marriage completely dissolved after 90 days or if you want to remain married but have everything legally divided between the parties.  The first thing you must do in either situation is file a summons and petition, serve the other party, and wait 90 days.  The big difference between a divorce and a legal separation is that after you file a summons and petition with the court, you have a wait time before final documents can be entered with the court.  In a divorce, you will have to wait 90 days and then you can enter final orders on asset and debt distribution, child support, parenting plans, etc.   After 90 days in a divorce proceeding, you can legally dissolve your marriage and be divorced.

One of the main concerns for individuals who are injured in an accident is how they are going to get their medical bills paid.  Well, if you are injured in a motor vehicle accident, hopefully you have personal injury protection with your auto insurance.  If you do not have it, we highly recommend that you get it.  You can set the coverage limits yourself and normally this coverage is pretty reasonable.

 If you do not have personal injury protection with your automobile insurance then hopefully you have private medical insurance.  If you do not have private medical insurance, then you are going to be in a very difficult position.  Why you might ask?  Well, in most personal injury cases, you are required to cover your own medical bills with your own insurance until you are done receiving medical treatment.  If you do not have insurance, then you will be subjected to setting up payment plans or fighting to keep your medical bills out of collections.   

If the victim wants the assault charge dropped, then the case gets dismissed right? Wrong. The victim being unwilling to cooperate or testify will not resolve a case, however, it is certainly a powerful and useful factor in a case and helpful to the defendant. Nonetheless, most defendants are under the impression that if they are charged with an assault charge and the victim does not want to participate in the case, then it will get dismissed. Unfortunately, this is not how it works. The ultimate decision to dismiss the case lies with the prosecutor. So, if you have been charged with an assault, hold tight, because it is going to be a long process dealing with this type of charge, especially in Chelan County.

In most of my assault cases, the victim does not want to cooperate with the prosecutor. The next challenge is to negotiate the case with the prosecutor and get the best resolution for my client. Favorable resolutions that I strive for would be an outright dismissal, an amendment to a lesser charge, or an agreement to a stipulated order of continuance (SOC). An SOC is a contract that my client enters into that basically indicates he or she will not have any criminal law violations for 24 months and will comply with any conditions set forth in the agreement. The case is in essense continued for this period of time. At the end of the 24 month period, if all conditions are met, the prosecutor will dismiss the case. These negotiations and deals all depend on my client’s criminal history.