Kuiper Kraemer PC

Focus and practice areas

Kuiper Kraemer PC works across a wide span of civil law from two offices, one in Grand Rapids, Michigan and one in Port Charlotte, Florida. The firm has represented clients since 2005. Its clients include individuals, families and businesses in both states.

The practice areas the firm names are probate and estate litigation, wills and trusts and probate, civil and commercial litigation, real estate, corporate and business law, family law, personal injury, and alternative dispute resolution. That grouping tells you something useful. The same office handles the document that sets up an estate and the courtroom fight that follows when the family disagrees about it.

Probate and estate work

On the planning side, the firm prepares wills, trusts, powers of attorney and advance directives, and it handles estate administration. On the contested side it takes will contests, trust litigation, estate disputes, guardianship and conservatorship matters, and breach of fiduciary duty claims.

Contested probate matters follow a course most people find unfamiliar. A will contest usually starts with a petition in the county probate court, and the grounds are narrow: capacity, undue influence, improper execution or fraud. Evidence tends to come from medical records, drafting attorney files and witnesses who were in the room. Guardianship and conservatorship petitions run on a separate track, with the court appointing a guardian ad litem to interview the person whose independence is at stake. Breach of fiduciary duty claims against a trustee or personal representative turn on accountings and the record of what was paid to whom. This is general background on how such cases work, not a description of any particular matter the firm has handled.

How the team is built

The site names seven attorneys: Thomas A. Kuiper, Scott W. Kraemer, C. Christopher Newberg, Lindsay M. Cummings, Jack L. Hoffman, Evan J. Kuiper and Audra Rose McClure. Thomas A. Kuiper and Scott W. Kraemer are listed as co-founding attorneys and partners.

Thomas A. Kuiper took his B.A. from Hope College in 1989 and his J.D. from Wayne State University Law School in 1992. He was admitted in Michigan the same year he finished law school. He then clerked at the Michigan Court of Appeals from 1992 to 1993.

He spent the twelve years after that at Wheeler Upham, P.C., where he was a shareholder from 1993 to 2005. The firm dates its own start to 2005, the year that tenure ended. His practice runs through state district, circuit and probate courts, federal court and the appellate level, plus arbitration and mediation.

Who does the work

The firm says it limits how many matters it takes so that clients deal directly with the attorney they hired. In my opinion that claim is worth reading carefully, because it is one of the few operating commitments a firm can make that a client can actually check. A client can tell within a month whether the named attorney answers the phone or whether a message goes to someone else.

Seven attorneys covering eight practice areas suggests attorneys who carry more than one subject each. Thomas Kuiper's own description supports that reading: he represents corporations in commercial disputes and individuals in personal and family matters.

Litigation reach across courts

The forums the firm lists cover most of what a Michigan civil case can encounter. District court handles smaller money claims and landlord matters. Circuit court takes larger civil cases, divorce and custody. Probate court has estates, trusts, guardianships and conservatorships. Federal court comes into play with diversity jurisdiction or a federal claim, and the Court of Appeals reviews what happened below.

Appellate practice asks for a different set of habits than trial work. The record is fixed by the time an appeal starts, briefing schedules are strict, and the standard of review often decides the outcome before the merits get much attention. A year clerking at the Michigan Court of Appeals gives a lawyer a view of that process from the deciding side.

The firm also lists alternative dispute resolution, and Thomas Kuiper's page names arbitration and mediation among the settings where he appears. Michigan circuit courts commonly refer civil cases to case evaluation or facilitative mediation before trial. Arbitration comes up where a contract requires it, which is frequent in construction and commercial agreements.

Everyday matters the firm takes

Family law

The family law pages cover divorce, child custody, property division and prenuptial agreements.Michigan custody decisions apply statutory factors concerning the child’s interests, and property division follows an equitable distribution standard where an even split is the usual starting point. Prenuptial agreements are drafted well before any of that, and their enforceability depends heavily on disclosure and timing.

Real estate and business

Real estate work at the firm splits into residential, commercial, construction contracting and real estate litigation. Construction matters bring their own machinery: lien deadlines, notices of furnishing and contract clauses that allocate delay risk. On the corporate side the firm handles business formation and contract disputes, which pairs the entity documents with the litigation that sometimes tests them.

Personal injury

The injury pages cover car accidents, truck accidents, motorcycle-adjacent categories such as bicycle and pedestrian claims, boating incidents and dog bites. Michigan sits under a no-fault auto system, so a car case involves both first party benefits from an insurer and, in some circumstances, a third party claim for pain and suffering. Dog bite claims run under a Michigan statute with its own elements. Boating cases can raise questions about which body of law applies.

What the record shows

Two decades of continuous practice under the same name is the clearest verifiable thing about Kuiper Kraemer PC. The founding partners are still listed as partners. The firm has added attorneys and a second office in Florida since it began.

The site keeps its claims modest. It describes courts, subject areas and attorney backgrounds. As a reviewer, that is the kind of listing that is easier to evaluate, because the statements are the sort a prospective client can test in a first conversation.

Public presence is limited to a Facebook page and a LinkedIn company page. Both are linked from the firm's structured data. Thomas A. Kuiper's bar admission dates to 1992 in Michigan.