Michigan Family Lawyer

Yesterday, Michigan voters took a giant step in bringing back fairness and justice to our courts by voting for Diane Hathaway and ousting Clifford Taylor from the Michigan Supreme Court.

For years, Justice Taylor has legislated from the bench to further his own personal agenda and that of the special interests that placed him on the Court in first place. Along with remaining justices Robert Young, Maura Corrigan and Stephen Markman, Justice Taylor obliterated decades of long standing Michigan law in order to rule in favor of big insurance companies and corporate america in over 85% of his decisions.

By the results of this election, it is evident that the Michigan public has finally had enough. This is only the first step however. Justice Robert Young is up for reelection in 2010 and his record toward ordinary citizens is as unfair, if not worse than that of Taylor. Keep up the fight and justice will finally be restored to the citizens of Michigan.

Tips For Saving Money On Your Divorce

As your attorney will charge you for all work he/she does on your case, there are several things you can do to keep your costs down:

1. Provide your attorney with organized copies of your financial and tax documents. This should include bank statements, 401(k) statements, pension documents, stocks, bonds, pay stubs etc.
2. Wait until you have several questions before calling your attorney. Because hourly rates are billed in increments of an hour, you will save money by asking several questions at one time.
3. Prepare a budget showing your actual income and expenses.
4. Pick your battles, i.e. don’t incur thousands of dollars in attorney fees fighting over a vase you received as a wedding gift that could be replaced for $20.00.
5. Have an open mind toward compromise. If you and your spouse can reach an agreement on a certain issue, you save money because it is one less thing your attorney will need to deal with.

During and following a divorce, it is the goal in the State of Michigan that parents maintain a strong relationships with their child(ren). In order to accomplish this goal, courts will attempt to promote such a relationship by determining the length, frequency and type of parenting time that is in the child(ren)'s best interests.

In doing so, the court considers several factors:

1. Special circumstances or needs of the child.
2. Whether the child is a nursing child less than 6 months of age, or less
than 1 year of age if the child receives substantial nutrition through
nursing.
3. The reasonable likelihood of abuse or neglect of the child during
parenting time.
4. The reasonable likelihood of abuse of a parent resulting from the exercise
of parenting time.
5. The inconvenience to, and burdensome impact or effect on, the child of
traveling to and from the parenting time.
6. Whether a parent can reasonably be expected to exercise parenting time
in accordance with the court order.
7. Whether the parent has frequently failed to exercise reasonable parenting
time.
8. Threatened or actual detention of the child with the intent to retain
or conceal the child from the other parent or from a third person who
has legal custody.
9. Any other relevant factors.

Parenting time orders can be as general or specific as the parents wish. However, parenting time orders are required to be granted in specific terms if requested by a party and may contain any reasonable terms or conditions, including but not limited to:

1. Dividing the responsibility to transport the child(ren).
2. Dividing the cost of transporting the child(ren).
3. Restricting third persons from being present during parenting time.
4. Specific times for pick up and return of the child(ren)
5. Requiring a specific person or agency be present during parenting time.
6. Requiring a party post a bond to assure compliance with a parenting time order.
7. Requiring reasonable notice of cancellation of parenting time.
8. Any other reasonable condition a court determines to be appropriate.

Remember, at all times the goal of any parenting time plan is to promote a strong relationship with both parents and their child(ren) and also to encourage continued parental responsiblity and access to the child(ren).

I get alot of questions about whether annulments (a judicial determination that a valid marrigage never occurred) are possible in the State of Michigan. The answer is yes but only under very limited circumstances.

Per MCL 552.1 Marriages will always be determined to be void under the following circumstances:

Bigamy
Marrigage between blood relatives
Incompetence of a party when entering into the marital contract
A person is under the age of 16 and did not have parental consent

Annulments may also occur if a marriage is obtained by force or fraud. Some examples would be where a wife fraudulently claims a man is the father of her child to trick him into marrying her, concealing the fact that one is a homosexual, failing to disclose the inability to conceive a child or concealing the fact at the time of the marriage that there is no intention to have sex with the spouse during the marriage.
Go here for the statute dealing with annulment under fraud and duress.

Please note that once a party to the marriage learns of any of these things, they must cease living together if they wish to obtain an annulment.