Family Law cases are usually difficult, especially when children are involved. We steer our clients toward fair solutions that are the least emotionally and financially taxing on them. Also, we will zealously advocate for the rights of our clients and their families. The areas of family law our practice covers include dissolution of marriage (divorce), legal separation, paternity and other custody matters, parenting time / visitation, and child support.
Child Custody and Visitation
Adoption
Although everyone hopes they never need a criminal defense attorney, you may find yourself in a position where you must make sure your rights are protected. Our firm’s experience covers cases ranging from traffic violations and juvenile matters to misdemeanor and major felony defense. We will make sure your case is thoroughly examined and present you with all of your options, while at the same time protecting your rights. We also defend clients’ rights in Child In Need of Services (CHINS) cases, terminations of parental rights, contested adoptions and guardianships, and contempt proceedings.
Paternity
Guardianship
Sometimes a child or a disabled adult needs a family member or friend to step in and provide for their care and/or manage their property. If you are facing one of these situations, we can help you. We will help you provide what is best for your loved one by representing you in court and by helping you navigate the procedural hurdles of guardianships, like financial management, periodic accounting, and inventories.
If you have been convicted of a misdemeanor or felony charge in the past, you may be eligible to have the conviction expunged from your record. Indiana law allows you to seek expungement of conviction records five (5) years after you are convicted of a misdemeanor offense or eight (8) years after you are convicted of certain felony offenses. This is a once-per-life event and can cover multiple convictions in multiple counties. We can help you through the expungement process and prevent an old criminal offense from hindering future job prospects and restore other rights.
We value the spirit of those who choose to open and run their own businesses, and we know how to clear the legal hurdles that business owners face on their journey to growth and hopeful prosperity. We assist entrepenuers in choosing the right type of business structure to use when opening the business and help them make sure to keep their paperwork current and in order with the government. Once your business is opened, we can advise you on employment issues, regulatory issues, and other legal matters that you face in your business operations. We can review and draft your contracts and employment policies. If you are buying or selling your business and/or other assets, we can help you complete that transaction advantageously. In short, we can be on your “business team” as your legal expert so that you can focus on building your business.
Whether you are simply buying your first home, selling several acres of farmland, or are involved in a complicated construction project on commercial land, we can help you to make your real estate transaction work efficiently for you. We review and draft real estate contracts, including residential and commercial leases, and can advise you on how to make your arrangement advantageous to you. While we prepare and conduct real estate transactions with the hope of avoiding unpleasant disagreements and lawsuits, they will inevitably arise in some real estate cases. If that happens, you can rely on our experts to advocate your rights in and out of court.
We strive to be a different kind of personal injury attorney. No, you won’t see us on television or get a letter from us in the mail after you have had a car wreck, but if you are injured or have lost a loved one or property, you will find at our firm attorneys and staff who will work to get you fair compensation as quickly as we can. We hope you will trust us with this very important matter.
Medicaid Planning
Medicaid laws constantly change and evolve, but effective planning can help protect your assets and income while still qualifying you for Medicaid benefits. Medicaid eligibility rules dictate how much of your assets can be kept, transferred, or converted into non-countable assets. Effective Medicaid planning tools include pre-paid funeral trusts, income-producing real estate, and certain allowable transfers. Other tools, like a Miller Trust, can help you qualify even if your income is high It’s important to understand these eligibility rules and the application process before making any decisions involving a nursing home. Our office can help you, your spouse, and your children plan for these expenses and help you qualify and apply for these benefits.
When a loved one dies, the last thing people often want to think about is “estate administration”. While there is almost always some work to be done no matter the situation of the deceased, you can trust our firm to take care of those details while you deal with the loss of your loved one. We handle estates of all sizes and all aspects of estate administration, including transferring property and handling issues with the taxing authorities and other agencies and businesses.
Wills
A clear and comprehensive estate plan can be one of your greatest gifts to your loved ones. We assist our clients in creating all kinds of estate plans, from simple wills to complicated trusts. After we evaluate our client’s financial and medical situation, we help them pick the best options in light of tax and other consequences that might not be obvious. We also assist our clients with planned giving. Finally, because we believe that a good estate plan includes preparation for a person’s eventual need for medical and personal care, we also offer our clients advanced directives such as powers of attorney and appointments of health care representative.
Power of Attorney
Welcome to the website of Bowers, Brewer, Garrett, & Wiley, LLP. Since 1899, we have served the residents of Huntington County and all of northeast Indiana. Our practice philosophy revolves around three points: loyalty, efficiency, and professionalism. We are loyal in that we strive to be practical problem solvers and reliable advice givers to our clients based on their particular needs. We are honored that many of our clients and their families return to us several times. We are efficient in that our approach to practice is to identify all options for our clients but to propose the most affordable solution that accomplishes our clients’ goals. While we put our clients’ needs first, we are “professional” because we try to do things the “right way”, following the Golden Rule in all matters of our professional and personal lives. All of our attorneys are first and foremost general practitioners, meaning we are prepared to advise and affordably represent individuals, businesses, and government agencies in most legal problems. We take this approach so that our clients can have their legal needs met at one place by someone who understands the “big picture”. Outside of our general practice, each of our attorneys also develops skills in one or more areas of the law. Some of our specific practice areas are estate administration, estate planning (such as wills, trusts, powers of attorney, health care representative), family law (such as adoption, guardianship, custody, divorce, child support), personal injury, civil litigation and criminal defense, and appeals.
As the tax laws continue to change, our attorneys stay abreast by attending on an annual basis the Purdue University Tax School and other tax seminars as may be needed. We counsel people on tax planning involving individual and charitable gift giving, as well as personal and business planning. Our office prepares tax returns for individuals, businesses, partnerships, estates, and trusts, and we provide tax counsel and planning in regards to those returns. Tax laws continue to become more complex and we pride ourselves in keeping up to date on those changes and how they relate to our clients.