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Recent Blog Posts
Should I Call CPS on My Co-Parent?
Knowing that your children are being neglected or abused when they are with their other parent can be horrible. If you know that something is wrong in your co-parent’s household, dropping your children off there may feel like torture. The signs that something is wrong may be subtle - your children are always hungry when you pick them up, or they are coming back to you wearing dirty clothes and in need of a bath. Or, you may have seen more substantial evidence that your children are not safe with your co-parent. Many parents who are facing this incredibly difficult situation believe that calling CPS on their co-parent will mean that the children are removed from the co-parents' custody and placed in the caller’s exclusive custody. While this would often be best for the children, it is, unfortunately, not how these situations usually end. A Northville, MI child custody lawyer can take immediate steps to help you protect your children. You should always call 911 if someone is in immediate danger.
Planning to Co-Parent During an Unexpected Pregnancy
When you find out that you are expecting a child with someone you are not in a committed relationship with, you might experience a lot of strong feelings. You may be anxious, overwhelmed, and excited all at the same time. If you intend to have a co-parenting relationship with your child’s other parent, it is best to start preparing as soon as possible. While you cannot formalize a child custody plan until your child is born and his or her needs are known, making a tentative plan now can help you focus on bonding with your baby once he or she is born. An experienced Northville, MI child custody attorney can help you begin talks with your co-parent immediately.
Consider Your Relationship First
It makes sense to take stock of your relationship before you begin talking about legal custody arrangements. If you are currently in a romantic relationship, do you plan to stay together to raise your baby? If so, will you get legally married? While being legally married can offer some security and added benefits, like automatic paternity, it should not be rushed into. If you decide to marry, you should strongly consider a prenuptial agreement.
Divorce When Your Spouse Has Lost Marital Assets
A big part of divorce is dividing your marital assets. If your spouse has lost or wastefully spent a large amount of money that belonged to both of you, you may be able to recover some of those funds during your divorce. Dissipation of marital assets is the legal term that describes a situation where one spouse has taken marital funds and recklessly spent them on himself or herself without the other’s agreement. If you find that your spouse has withdrawn money from your joint bank account or retirement plan, or has sold assets like your shared stock holdings and used the money for his or her own enjoyment, the divorce court may award you other assets to make up for that loss. An experienced Novi, MI divorce lawyer may be able to help you recover some or all of the funds your spouse dissipated.
What is Dissipation of Marital Assets?
For one spouse’s spending to qualify as dissipation of marital assets, it must meet a few requirements. First, the money spent must have been a marital asset. Each spouse can dispose of his or her separate property at will. Second, the spending must have taken place without the other spouse’s agreement or consent. If you were aware of your spouse’s spending and did not object, you might be considered complicit in the spending. Finally, the spending must be wasteful and for the sole benefit of the spouse doing the spending, not for the benefit of the family as a whole.
Divorce When You Are Caring for Grandchildren
Nearly one out of every 25 children in the U.S. are raised by their grandparents. Many of these children have parents who may be struggling with substance abuse or mental illness or are incarcerated. Others were born to very young parents who were not ready for a baby. A few of these children were removed from their parents’ custody due to neglect or abuse. Grandparents often take in their grandchildren to provide them with a stable, loving home. When grandparents who are caring for their grandchildren on a temporary or permanent basis get divorced, their child custody issues can be complicated both legally and emotionally. You will need an experienced Novi, MI divorce lawyer to help you create a plan.
When Grandparents Have Legal Custody
If you and your spouse have been through the formal legal process to get custody of your grandchildren, you will likely need to create a child custody plan. If you have permanent custody and your grandchild’s parents have lost their parental rights or if you have adopted your grandchildren, this process will be the same as it would if these were your biological children. If you have a temporary form of custody, such as if your adult child signed a Delegation of Parental Authority that is set to expire when she returns from inpatient substance abuse treatment, your situation may be more complicated.
How Do Michigan Courts Decide Who Keeps What in a Divorce?
If you are facing a contested divorce, you are probably wondering how courts in Michigan decide how marital property should be divided. Michigan is an equitable distribution state, meaning that courts should divide marital property in the most fair way possible. Equitable does not mean equal - your marital assets are probably not going to be divided 50/50. Instead, the court will try to gain a good understanding of your particular situation to help it decide how to divide your marital property fairly. While courts have broad discretion in dividing marital property, there are certain factors they must consider. An experienced Northville, MI divorce lawyer can discuss how different factors might affect your marital property division.
Factors in Marital Property Division
Factors the court will consider when dividing your marital property include:
- Length of marriage - How long your marriage lasted will impact how your marital property is distributed. In short marriages, courts are likely to try to leave each spouse in the position he or she was in before the marriage. In longer marriages, courts lean toward a more even split.
4 Things Most Divorcing Spouses Can Agree On
You and your spouse might not agree on many things by the time you decide to divorce. Your opinions on politics, religion, childrearing, and financial matters may differ drastically these days. However, if you are planning to attempt an uncontested divorce, you will need to agree on a lot of things, including how to divide up your marital property and how to function as co-parents. Even if your divorce is amicable, creating a divorce agreement you are both willing to sign can be difficult. Mediation can help, or you might decide to use attorney-facilitated negotiation if your relationship is quite tense. However you decide to approach your divorce, you should be represented by an experienced Oakland County, MI divorce attorney.
What You And Your Spouse Might Already Agree On
Establishing common ground can be a productive start to divorce mediation or negotiations. You and your spouse probably already agree that:
Tips for Dividing Your Personal Items in Divorce
In Michigan, marital property is to be divided in a fair and equitable manner. Whether you and your spouse are using divorce mediation to divide your property or asking the court to establish an equitable division, you will need to cooperate together to some degree. Even in a contested divorce, it would be wildly impractical to have the court distribute every single item in your household; the most scorned and vengeful spouses do not engage in litigation over who keeps the dish towels or artificial flowers you have sitting around the house.
If you are at home, take a brief look around the room and imagine asking the court to decide who keeps every last item in your direct line of sight alone. You can begin to understand how difficult the property division process is likely to be. If you are getting divorced, it is best to work with an experienced Novi, MI divorce lawyer to make sure the property division process is fair and your current and future interests are represented.
Does Not Using My Parenting Time Affect Custody?
"Use it or lose it" can apply to parenting time in Michigan. Most parents want to take full advantage of any time they are able to spend with their children after separating from the other parent. However, parents sometimes fail to exercise their parenting time for any number of reasons. If you have a temporary child custody and parenting time arrangement while your divorce is in progress, it is important to use every minute of parenting time you have. Failing to exercise your parenting time now could cause the court to give you less parenting time in the end. An Oakland County, MI child custody lawyer can work to help you maximize the time you will have with your child going forward.
Michigan Courts Can Consider Failure to Exercise Parenting Time
One of the many factors Michigan courts will consider when awarding parenting time is whether one parent has failed to use his or her parenting time in the past. A parent who has a history of not spending time with his or her children when it is his or her turn to take them will not be looked upon favorably. Missed parenting time windows and repeated failures to show up for a custody exchange often lead to disappointed children and inconvenience to the other parent.
Planning for the Holidays During Divorce
When parents get divorced, the prospect of not being able to spend major holidays with their children can be very upsetting. Many parents - including parents of adult children - cannot fathom a Thanksgiving or Christmas without their children around. However, unless you and the spouse you are divorcing feel that you can spend these holidays around each other as well as your children, you will likely need to find a way to divide your children’s time during major holidays. It is often best when parents are able to do this by agreement, through mediation. A Novi, MI divorce attorney can help you and your co-parent plan for the holidays.
Child Custody During the Holidays
A few things to consider when planning who your minor children will spend the holidays with include:
- School schedules - If the children are with one parent for most of the year due to their school schedules, the other parent’s only opportunity to spend meaningful time with the children is likely to be during school breaks, which may coincide with major holidays.
Relocating with Your Child After Divorce
Every divorced or separated parent who wants to move away with a child has his or her reasons. Some parents just want a fresh start. Others want to be closer to family, to provide better opportunities for the child, or to be a safe distance away from an abusive co-parent. When you ask the court to relocate with your child over the other parent’s objections, your reasons for wanting to move matter a great deal. An experienced Northville, MI child relocation attorney can help you present the best arguments possible in favor of the move you have planned.
Moving to Be Near Family
When you are transitioning from being a two-parent household to a single-parent household, it is only natural to want to go live where you and your child will have family nearby to help out. Courts generally place a high importance on family relationships. If being near your child’s grandparents or aunts and uncles will be good for your child, the court is more likely to approve your relocation. For example, if your child will spend less time in daycare and more time being cared for by family members, this will probably be considered an improvement in your child’s quality of life.
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| 248-344-9700 |
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