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Let’s hear the story of Nebraska, its communities, its number one industry Agriculture, and the people who make it happen. Sponsored by Nebraska's Law Firm® - Rembolt Ludtke.
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Legal Insights on Family Law in Nebraska Agriculture
Jane Langan Mach, Ryan Swaroff, and Abbie DeWitte from the Rembolt Ludtke Domestic Relations team discuss navigating family and divorce law issues in Nebraska agriculture.
Nebraska, it's not just a place, but a way of life. It's 93 counties that are home to innovative individuals, caring community, and a spirit that runs deeper than its purple story. It's a story that should be told. Welcome to 93, the podcast.
SPEAKER_01:Welcome to 93, the podcast, where we talk about Nebraska, its communities, its number one industry agriculture, and the people who make it happen. I'm Mark Falson, your host for today's episode, brought to you by Nebraska's law firm, Rembrandt Latti. Today's episode involves a discussion of what can be a difficult and emotional subject. It's a reality that family relationships can, in fact, unravel. Like many things in life, the key is finding someone you can trust, someone who will give you good advice and help you make the right decision for you and your family. Joining us today are three attorneys from the Domestic Relations Practice Group at Rembolt Latti Law Firm, Jane Langenmach, Ryan Swarhoff, and Ebbie DeWitt. Welcome to today's episode. Let me go through the three of you. Just give a little background on yourselves. Jane, tell our listeners about yourself. Where do you come from?
SPEAKER_04:I grew up on a farm outside of Wahoo, Nebraska in Saunders County. Went to high school there. Um I went to college my first year at Doan and then the rest of the time at the University of Nebraska. Went to law school here. I've never lived more than 30 miles from where I live right now.
SPEAKER_01:In what county, if I looked at the license pipe for Saunders County, what's the number? Six. Ryan, how about yourself?
SPEAKER_02:I am from St. Paul, Minnesota. I went to the University of Minnesota for undergrad and then came down to Lincoln for law school 18 years ago, and then um couldn't leave.
SPEAKER_01:And we're glad you're here. Abby?
SPEAKER_03:I was born and raised in Brooklyn, Iowa.
SPEAKER_01:No Iowa jokes, I promise. Go hawks.
SPEAKER_03:That might get edited out of this podcast. Um, I did my undergrad at Iowa State and I moved out to Lincoln to attend law school. Thought that I would move back to Iowa at some point, and then decided to buy a house here and never left.
SPEAKER_01:So you said go hawks, why not go cyclones?
SPEAKER_03:So Brooklyn is about 45 minutes from Iowa City. So I was raised a Hawkeye. Um the University of Iowa didn't have my major, so that's why I ended up going to Iowa State, but old roots die hard.
SPEAKER_01:Despite that Iowa background, we're glad to have you in Nebraska. So over the years, I've had the pleasure of working with the three of you uh when some of our farm and ranch clients have had family law issues arise. And the three of you have always done a phenomenal job. And so I'm I want you to know I'm very grateful for the jobs that you have done for our farm and ranch clients because it's just been grateful. I'm grateful, and I know they're they're grateful as well. Can you give our listeners a little background on specific connections you have with farms, ranches, uh representation of farm and ranch clients, obviously without revealing client information?
SPEAKER_04:Sure. Uh, you know, as I said, I grew up on a farm. My parents divorced when I was young, and so both of my sets of parents lived on farms. Uh my dad lived on a farm out in Franklin County, uh, and he's passed away, so I'm now also a landlord of uh farm ground in Franklin County. So uh never lived on a ranch, but I've had a number of ranching clients, farming clients, feedlot clients, uh people who work in all areas of AG.
SPEAKER_01:And your husband works in ag as well?
SPEAKER_04:Yes, my husband is a John Deere dealer.
SPEAKER_01:They're great. Do you have a lot of green stuff in your house?
SPEAKER_04:Everything is green. No red is allowed anywhere in my house. Well, except on Husker Days.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Ryan?
SPEAKER_02:So I grew up in St. Paul, you know, not a rural area, but my um relatives um own farm up in um northern Minnesota. So dairy farm. So I've been on, you know, growing up, I was on a farm at times, but it really wasn't my life until I came to Nebraska. Um my first job was with the York uh county attorney's office. And so that was a whole shock to my system. I didn't know what a pivot was. I learned quickly because people actually Especially in York County. Yep, people steal um materials from pivots. Um and so that's how I first got introduced as a prosecutor.
SPEAKER_01:What do they steal from pivots?
SPEAKER_02:Oh, I can't remember now. I think it was like wiring, maybe or copper. Yeah, it's been a while. Um and so now, you know, obviously being in uh a farming area, those are gonna be part of our cases. And so um I'm I'm still learning. Jane is our matriarch and um our expert on that. Um and I'm learning from Jane, but awesome.
SPEAKER_01:Abby?
SPEAKER_03:I was raised on a farm in Brooklyn, Iowa. Um lived there until my parents divorced in about sixth grade.
SPEAKER_01:Did you have livestock?
SPEAKER_03:We did. So I was involved in 4-H. I had rabbits, bottle calves, never won anything um at the 4-H show, which was it's not about winning, it's about the experience and uh life lessons. I know it's not about winning, but Little Abbey, um, much like Adult Abbey, was very competitive and always wanted to win. Um and so Brooklyn's just a small community surrounded by farms and some the three of you pr practice what in the law we call domestic relations law.
SPEAKER_01:Some call it family law. Can the three of you explain what what that is? Because I I told myself when I went to law school I would never do family law, so I'm thankful that the three of you do it. But what is it?
SPEAKER_04:Domestic relations and family law encompasses a whole group of uh possible issues that come up. Principally it's divorce. Most of the time we're dealing with divorce issues. Sometimes there are paternity cases, custody cases, uh, child support cases. It can include adoptions, it can include guardianships either of children or of elderly adults, uh, all of those things that involve the complex relationships in family members.
SPEAKER_01:Aaron Powell It's my understanding the three of you have had cases across Nebraska, perhaps in all 93 counties. Are there any unique issues that come out uh that arise when cases are in rural Nebraska or rural Nebraska communities as it relates to family issues, child support issues, anything that's unique?
SPEAKER_02:Aaron Powell I think one of the really unique things is scheduling. I mean, you are trying to get into a um in front of a judge for a hearing, and you might have two options for dates. Um and or they might say, We can hear something, but only if you'll go to this other county that I also um need to to go to. And so when they call a case, they'll they'll say, you know, here we are sitting in you know whatever county hearing a case on this other county, and they they say that on the record. So that can be really unique. Um in there's somewhat a lack of attorneys in certain areas, certain rural areas. And so you have attorneys who are coming in from you know not that area, not familiar with a judge, um, not familiar with local customs, and so getting to know those things is really important.
SPEAKER_01:So being an attorney based in Lincoln, do you feel that that's a disadvantage if you're representing someone, say, out in Alliance in Nebraska?
SPEAKER_02:It it can be sometimes. Um the more you do cases around the state, the better you are at understanding the local procedures and having a relationship with a judge. And so then I think it becomes less of an advantage. The great thing about Remble is we have such a great reputation across the state that I think there is already when you walk into a courtroom, this idea that this attorney is going to be prepared, knows what they're doing, is going to be a good attorney, even though they don't know me personally.
SPEAKER_01:Jane, you you've tried cases across the state. Any unique issues?
SPEAKER_04:Well, as Ryan said, there are a number of counties in Nebraska that have no attorneys at all. And there are a number of counties where there's just a handful of attorneys, and they end up with conflicts. Uh and so some of the cases that we get uh that involve rural areas are because uh, you know, the family may have been consulting with one lawyer their whole lives, but now something's come up and that lawyer's been too involved in the family, and now people have conflicts. I do think that there's always a little bit of a concern about whether there's a hometown advantage for the local attorney. But generally what I find is that judges sort of take note uh when someone from our firm will show up. They think, well, this must be important. Someone is, you know, sort of spending the extra money and going the extra mile to have someone come here from the city. And it isn't that it's impressive to have someone from the city, but I do think judges do expect us and know us to be prepared and to uh argue our case as well. So I have not found that to be a disadvantage at all.
SPEAKER_01:Abby?
SPEAKER_03:Piggy backing off of what Ryan and Jane said, you know, I had a case out in Keith County that involved a custody matter, and we needed to get into court um pretty quickly. And I found out that they have selective motion days. So they have two days where they sit and they hear motions. Um, and you don't need to call the court, you just set it on a motion day. But one of the things that I found that's been really helpful is if you know you just call over to the clerk of the court and you talk with them, explain who you are. They are so helpful, um, more than willing to have a conversation. And I think, you know, as the attorney, it's our responsibility to sometimes do that instead of having our staff call so we can build those relationships.
SPEAKER_01:Jane, I know in recent years, in addition to your domestic relations practice, you've become a mediator primarily in domestic relations matters. Ryan, you've been doing some as well. What is a mediator and what role do you play?
SPEAKER_04:So the role of a mediator is to help people come up with their own solutions uh rather than submit those to a court. So for example, I had a mediation yesterday and another one today, and part of what I tell people is if you have a trial, uh, our judges in Nebraska are wonderful and they mean well and they try hard, but you might spend one day in front of a judge, maybe two days in front of a judge, and you're trying to explain what has happened in your family over the course of maybe 20 years. Uh you can't get them to get the whole flavor of everything. Uh it's very difficult. That judge will never meet your children. Uh that judge is not always going to know the family dynamics that led to everything. And though they'll do their best to get it right, it is often better, certainly not always, but it's often better for people to be able to make their own decisions. We also find in domestic relations, it's one of the few areas where people do sometimes have to come back. If it's a car crash case, you know, once that's decided, it's over. But when you have a case with kids involved, particularly, those people may come back a couple of times before the kids reach adult age. And people are much more likely to follow through with agreements that they've made rather than something that's been imposed on them by the judge. So really great area for compromise. We can also do all kinds of unique things in domestic relations agreements that a judge won't do. You know, we might, for example, suggest, well, you know, if you've got this piece of property and we can't agree what's going to happen, what if we just go ahead and put it in trust for the kids and then we don't fight about it? Well, a judge would never do something like that. Uh because, you know, there's only the two parties to the case, and those are the only two people who can be ordered to do anything.
SPEAKER_01:Ryan, how about yourself and being a mediator?
SPEAKER_02:Helping people make their decisions by helping them have conversations, right? Sometimes they come in very stuck on something and they uh they want one thing, right? And uh they can only they have a tunnel vision towards that. And so helping them kind of explore that, what what are the underlying reasons why they want that, what are some other options that may accomplish that same thing or be similar to that? Um it's it's really saying that I and I am tell people like I know that you can do this because you're here today, I know you want to do this, right? Um though mediation is becoming more and more a thing that courts are imposing before people can even walk through those courtroom doors. Um but if you go in front of a judge, there may be three things that you walk into that courtroom and you're like, I really, really want to have walk out with these three things. And the other side saying, I really want to walk out with these other three things. I might be able to compromise on these other things, and I could have maybe in mediation, we just didn't get there. But when the judge is making the decision, they don't know that those are the top three things that are important to you, and they don't know that those are the top three things that are important to the other side. And so they may decide them completely the opposite of what you wanted. And if you had only been able to go in mediation and say these are the most important things to me, I want to walk out of here with those things, you may have been able to do that. The judge doesn't know what is really, really when it comes down to it important to you. And there's gonna be compromises that they make in the courtroom and their decisions, and sometimes people are all gonna be a little bit unhappy, but you could have been a little more happy if you had been willing to compromise.
SPEAKER_01:Let's assume I'm facing a potential divorce. Hopefully, my wife's not listening to this. I'm just kidding, honey. But when you're considering whom to hire, what things should someone look at in deciding whether to hire someone to be their divorce attorney? Is there a process? Do you interview people? What what do you recommend?
SPEAKER_02:I think that people generally are going to go to an attorney where they have a personal connection through maybe that person has been hired by somebody they know, or it's you know, a referral from somebody they trust. That tells you, hey, I trust this person, and they had Ryan for an attorney, and they said she's really great, they got along with her, she knew her stuff, um, she really cared about the outcome. So it that tells me that I want that same person. It's much harder to just sort of pick somebody out of you know the the Google top three pages.
SPEAKER_01:Used to be the yellow pages.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it used to be the yellow pages, and now you know you you can Google, but people pay to put their names at the top of Google. So you don't know if those are actually the best attorneys just because they show up at the top of you know the Google search. So I think that generally knowing somebody who's used an attorney before or can get you a referral, maybe they you know, you ask a friend, hey, do who's a who's a good attorney? Well, I don't know, but I have a friend who's a lawyer and they'll tell me who are the good family law attorneys.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I would say the vast majority of cases, at least that come to me, are referrals from people I've represented in the past, or they're connected somehow to a different attorney in the office. Uh, you know, someone here did their estate plan, someone here did a business matter for them. Uh and those are those are the majority of the calls that I get.
SPEAKER_03:I also get a lot of referrals if they call for Jane and Jane doesn't have the capacity to take them on, or if Ryan, if they call for Ryan as well. Um I always tell clients too, if they've come in and they've met with another attorney, that meeting with an attorney is sort of like finding a good hairstylist. You might go to one hairstylist and you might absolutely hate the result or just not have a good interaction with them. And so you can check around. You can meet with different attorneys.
SPEAKER_01:So you can be like me that has had the same person cut my hair for the last 27 years? Yes, you can. Change is bad. I'm not not a fan of change. So one of the concepts in family law, as I understand it, or at least understood it for purposes of the bar exam, is something called marital property. What is marital property and how is it treated or divided in a divorce?
SPEAKER_04:Aaron Powell Well, marital property in Nebraska is defined as all the property that was acquired during the marriage. And our courts will start with a presumption that everything you own is marital property. There are exceptions to that, if there's property that you had prior to the marriage, or if you received it as an inheritance or as a gift from somebody other than your spouse. Even if you got a gift from your spouse, there's a little bit of leeway on that. But typically, if you received it as a gift from someone other than your spouse or inherited it or had it before, you have a chance of proving that that is not marital property. And that's tricky. You've got to prove what it was, what it was valued at, um, whether it's changed its character or nature during the marriage and that sort of thing. Uh but if a person wants something to be considered not marital property, or we would say separate property, it's that person's burden. And so, you know, one of the things we're finding is the longer people are married, the more difficult that is to do because people aren't keeping their records for 30 years. Uh, and even the banks are only keeping the records for seven years, and there's only so far back people can go.
SPEAKER_01:Aaron Powell So let's focus a little bit on divorces when farms and ranches and farm and ranch assets are at issue. Are there any unique issues that come up when it's a family farm or a family ranch operation that's involved when a couple is getting divorced?
SPEAKER_04:Many. It it's the truest example of family law because the whole family is involved. You know, it's it's grandma's land, it's been in the family for generations, and we don't want someone outside the family to have this. And sometimes the farmland is the sometimes the only asset of significant value. Sometimes there's a combination of ownership interests, right? Where you have, well, this husband and wife own this land, but then this other land is owned between the husband and his brother, and then the equipment is owned some by the dad, and some by this brother, and some by uh somebody they have a sharing arrangement with. Um, can get very, very complex.
SPEAKER_01:So in 2023, there was a decision, as I understand it, issued by the Nebraska Supreme Court called Party versus Part E that involved a divorce in Gage County, Nebraska that has implications for ag producers and families all throughout Nebraska. Jane, you were the author of a pretty fancy article about that. Maybe let's start with you. Can you tell our listeners a little bit about that case and what the implications are?
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:So I actually was a mediator in that case and it didn't settle, and they tried that um and it's now gone up an appeal two different times. The main uh effect of party is to put in place some of these rules I was just talking about when you're trying to prove something is not marital property. So let's go back to the example where, say, husband and wife uh are farming, and husband has a piece of land that husband has inherited from a father, grandfather, somebody up the chain. If father, if husband in that scenario had owned that land prior to marriage, at one time we would have said, well, that's his premarital property. And he would just be able to take that land off the table out of the marital pot, so to speak, and it's not something to be divided. There were a number of cases starting with a Stevens case in about 2017 that that put now uh put Nebraska in a category of states that talk about active appreciation. And what that means is if something has increased in value during the marriage because of the efforts of a spouse, that that portion of it can be considered marital property. So with farmland, there's all kinds of arguments about how do you increase the value of farmland, right? There maybe people would agree that if you're a better farmer, your land is likely to increase more than the guy across the road that is not such a good farmer. Quantifying that is difficult. Uh but a lot of farmers would say, look, all I really do is maintain it. I didn't add terraces or ditches or anything to it. It's just the same land that it always was. But it increased in value. And so what the Pardee case did is it said that it is the burden of that owner to prove that if there was any appreciation during the marriage, that it is not active.
unknown:Trevor Burrus, Jr.
SPEAKER_01:So the burden is to prove there that there was not active participation that resulted in that increase. So the burden's kind of flipped.
SPEAKER_04:Exactly. Well, it you know it's consistent in that it is still the burden of the person trying to show an asset is non marital. But now there's a presumption that that increase in value is marital. And the facts that are needed to prove that are pretty nuanced. For example, the Supreme Court said in the Pardee case well, you know, one way you can show that it's not due to active participation. Participation is by comparing it to the increase in value of other people's land. But the Pardee case cited a Tennessee case that said just sort of driving your tractor across the farm increases the value of the land, which doesn't necessarily make sense to people who farm, but that's what the court said.
SPEAKER_01:Even if it's John Deere tractor?
SPEAKER_04:Even if it's a well- Especially if it's not John Deere. And it doesn't increase the value at all. But what has made this really difficult is if if the farmer says, okay, well, I can prove that my increased value is similar to the guy across the road and the guy a mile down, but all those people are farming too. All those people are doing the same sorts of activities that this farmer is doing. So how that proves it's active or inactive is really difficult. So you know the courts are in the process of trying to figure that out. And so we're in a a time where there's probably quite a bit at risk. Because of course, farm values have gone.
SPEAKER_01:And people don't want to be the next test case as far as whether you know the role that the spouse played in the increase or appreciation in that asset.
SPEAKER_04:Exactly. It's expensive.
SPEAKER_02:Probably another good reason to mediate.
SPEAKER_04:Another good reason to mediate.
SPEAKER_01:So how do they prove that appreciation? Do they hire an expert, an accountant, someone, uh a farm and ranch manager to come in and say, here's the increase and here's what led to that increase?
SPEAKER_04:Yes, and it's usually both. Usually you have appraisals and we talk about retroactive appraisals. So we'll have someone come in and say, okay, the value of your property today is X, and the value of the property that you owned at the time you got married was Y. So at least then we've quantified how much appreciation there is. And then we'll have an accountant or someone go through and there's a publication that the university puts out every year through the extension office that does average land values by region and average rent values by region. And a lot of times that's kind of the standard that you would compare to. Uh, you know, this land appreciated more than the average land in that region, less or roughly the same.
SPEAKER_01:So assume a rancher comes into your offices and says, hey, uh my kid just met someone on farmersonly.com, they're going to get married, I haven't met her yet. Uh I I want you to draft a prenup. What is a prenuptial agreement and are they in fact enforceable in the state of Nebraska? Aaron Powell Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Prenuptial agreements basically will set out in a contract what things are marital and what things are separate property, um, may even go so far as to talk about how income is classified during the marriage, whether that's going to be considered to be marital or separate. Um so you're pre-deciding before the relationship falls apart how you want some of your assets to be divided once that divorce happens. Aaron Powell Yes.
SPEAKER_04:And premarital agreements are enforceable in Nebraska. There's sometimes some issues about interpretation and so on. I won't get into all the details. They have to be voluntarily signed with an adequate disclosure and so on. After people get married, they can't enter into those agreements. I mean, they're called prenuptial agreements for a reason. We do in Nebraska allow people to enter into those sorts of agreements that govern what will happen to their property at death, but they can no longer contract as to what will happen to their property in the event of divorce. Trevor Burrus, Jr.
SPEAKER_01:So when that happens, we have a number of estate planning attorneys here in the firm. How often is it that you work with our estate planning attorneys in that situation to make sure all those things line up?
SPEAKER_04:Aaron Powell Almost always. There are lots of different groups of folks that are that look into premarital agreements. They tend to fall into categories of either young folks who may not even have much, but they're expecting something, an inheritance or so forth. Those folks are less concerned with what happens at death. I've had some people say, look, if our marriage ends at death, we can just follow the regular rules, that's fine. We just want to protect our farm or the inherited assets. But then there's another category of older people who've either been divorced or widowed. Uh, and their main concern may be just to ensure that the property they already have will transfer down to their lineage uh rather than go over to the spouse or the spouse's children.
SPEAKER_01:Abby, have you had conversations with clients about prenuptial agreements? And if so, what do you tell them?
SPEAKER_03:I always tell my clients that the sooner you can get a premarital agreement, the better. Um, so say there's farm ground that is appreciated significantly during the marriage, and there was a premarital agreement that was maybe signed the day before the marriage. So the person that wants to disregard the premarital agreement will say, Hey, I didn't execute this voluntarily voluntarily or this is unconscionable. Um and one of the ways we can sort of take away that claim is if that person had an attorney, there was ample time for them to look at the premarital agreement, they were able to negotiate the premarital agreement, um, sort of takes the win from their claims.
SPEAKER_01:What what do you say to someone who you're you're having this discussion about premarital agreements and they say, you know, I don't think I should do that because it's going into the marriage as if it's destined to fail. I'm like jinxing it, if you will. I mean, what what do you tell someone when they bring that argument back and say, that's why I don't want to do it?
SPEAKER_03:A lot of times I'll relate it um back to myself. I just got married and congratulations. But just having a conversation about this doesn't mean that there's not ways that we can create joint property, right? Normally our premarital agreements will build out what will be considered marital property. And that's if things are titled jointly, um, if they want to create a joint account that they both deposit money into. Um, it doesn't mean that, you know, it's a bad omen for the marriage. It's just that you're protecting yourself if things are to go wrong and a way to plan for the future.
SPEAKER_04:And the premarital agreement doesn't have to say that everything is separate. The most enforceable premarital agreements have some provision for the other spouse to gain something, but you it gives you the ability to protect the things that are most important. And so an example I gave to someone recently is you know, if you don't do a premarital agreement and this farm increases in value, if you are later determined to have to share that, there's no way for you to pay it other than to sell the family farm. That's what you need to try to avoid. But if you want to say that your income is joint or that your house is joint or however you want to set those things up, you're perfectly free to make those decisions as well.
SPEAKER_02:I was just gonna say, I don't think that people make decisions about whether they stay married or not married based upon whether they have a prenuptial agreement or not, right? It's about the relationship. So I see the prenuptial agreement a little bit like insurance. We buy insurance not because we think the thing is going to necessarily happen, but we want it there in case it does.
SPEAKER_01:Let me give you an example. Um let's assume I'm farming 100 miles north of Grand Island, and my wife and I are getting a divorce and we have young children, and my wife decides to move to York or to Lincoln to be in a town. What issues does that create regarding child custody visitation when someone moves that far away, either within Nebraska or perhaps even leaving the state? I mean, what happens there?
SPEAKER_02:Well, she can't necessarily just move to Lincoln and think that she's gonna have custody of the kids. So the court uh really wants to keep status quo for children. They want things to be uh as unchanged as possible for them. So if your kids have grown up in an area and one of the parents during the divorce wants to move, you know, uh say anywhere more than an hour away, um, they can't count on the fact that they're gonna be able to have their kids with them on a joint basis or a primary basis. The court is going to look at the best interest of the kids, all the factors that come into play there. A lot of different things. Um you know, who's been most involved with taking care of the children on a day-to-day basis? Um, is their family local to them? How old are they? How involved have they been in the community? Um so many different things that they consider. Um so then with the the out-of-state thing, you cannot move your children out of the state of Nebraska without the permission of the court once there has been a divorce action filed. Um, because um the court has to decide what is in the best interest of the children. Um and if uh one parent just tried to leave the state, they couldn't do that partially because there is this um a statute, a set of statutes called the UCCJEA, which talks about what state is the home state for making custody decisions in the initial custody decision. And a child has to be in a state for or they look at which um state the child has been in for the six months prior to that initial custody decision. So if a parent says, okay, oh shoot, you know, my husband just filed for divorce and now I want to go to Colorado, they can't just take the kids to Colorado because Colorado is not going to hear that custody case, and the judge in Nebraska is going to say, I'm the one to make that custody decision, and I don't want the kids to just go.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. There was a there was a case in Nebraska several years ago where someone, a family had grown up around Falls City, which if you picture the map of Nebraska, it's way down in the southeast corner. And the mom in that case wanted to move to, I think it was called Big Lake, but it was something seven or ten miles away. But it was across the border in Missouri and the court wouldn't let them go. Because in part there's this issue of whether or not our court is relinquishing jurisdiction by letting that happen. Because again, as I said earlier, a family might come back two or three times to talk about custody of kids.
SPEAKER_01:What's the craziest thing you have seen without revealing client confidences or craziest craziest thing you've heard from your colleagues, other attorneys that you've seen or heard about in a divorce proceeding or family law action? Any crazy stuff? Stuff uh that uh could even be on TV someday?
SPEAKER_02:Oh, I'm sure my mind's going blank.
SPEAKER_04:I don't know. I I think of several and now I'm they would give away client confidences. Uh I am sometimes surprised at how people meet people.
SPEAKER_01:What do you mean by that? Um it doesn't happen uh at bars or uh at work anymore?
SPEAKER_04:Well, you know, there are all kinds of websites that people might not be aware of.
SPEAKER_01:Farmersonly.com.
SPEAKER_04:Farmersonly.com, but people are aware of that. Uh sugardaddy.com is one that's interesting. Uh I could understand why perhaps a a woman might be looking there. I less convinced as to why a man would put himself on that website, but that that happens.
SPEAKER_01:And that's when they get a prenuptial agreement.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. Well, that's also true. Normally not. Um okay, so one thing that I've also seen lately is a number of cases where uh the family is falling apart and the a divorce is happening in part because they've the people have shared iCloud accounts and people have not been careful about taking pictures with their significant other, and like a ch a child will see that picture on an iPad and go ask the parent about it. So all kinds of things.
SPEAKER_01:Aaron Powell, does social media come up in your cases? Absolutely. How so?
SPEAKER_04:Well, I mean, that was one example. People find out about things on social media. Uh social media has its advantages and its disadvantages. Uh a lot of times people know other people's passwords or they can guess their passwords, and so you have people with secret messages on Facebook or other things, and someone is suspicious and they go in and they see those things. We've also had cases, both um divorces or even in modifications, where we're looking at people's social media, and you know that you'll have a case where uh you know a mom is got pictures of herself drinking with the kids there or all kinds of uh scenarios where people are doing other things that you would not approve of.
SPEAKER_03:As a public service announcement, um set your profile or any of your other social media to private. Don't let us attorneys be able to access that and look at those things.
SPEAKER_02:The amount of crazy things that people put in text messages to each other is wild. I mean, you those messages can get used against you in a custody case. Um you know, once you write it, the other person has it unless their messages just delete. Uh I used to have a mentor who would say, um, write it, regret it, say it, forget it, right? So it's much easier to say, I didn't say that, or not remember, you know, that somebody said something when you put it in writing, it can be forever.
SPEAKER_01:So we ask all of our guests this question, and you get one word, just one word. What is one word that describes and explains this great place in which we live and work, Nebraska? Jane, you're the native Nebraska. I'm gonna start with you and I'm gonna stump you. What's your word?
SPEAKER_04:Welcoming.
SPEAKER_01:Abby.
SPEAKER_02:Home.
SPEAKER_01:Ryan.
SPEAKER_02:Community.
SPEAKER_01:It's a great way to wrap up. Thanks for joining us today. I'm confident that our listeners learned something new today. I know I certainly did. Thanks for joining. Please keep on listening to 93 the podcast as we release additional episodes on Nebraska, its vibrant communities, Nebraska's number one industry, agriculture, and the folks that make it happen. Thanks.
SPEAKER_00:This has been 93 the podcast, sponsored by Nebraska's law firm, Rembolt Bloodkey.
