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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.
Can Michigan Family Court Divorce Orders Be Appealed?
Divorce is tough on all those involved. With so much at stake, you may wonder whether the judge’s final order on asset division, child support, spousal support, or child custody is actually "final." Michigan does allow appeals on a family court decision, although the specific issues surrounding potential appeals are important.
It is important to differentiate between appeals and modifications. Modifications are common and are made after the divorce is final, when one spouse’s circumstances have changed significantly, and a change in spousal support, child support, or child custody is necessary. An appeal usually argues that the court made a mistake when applying the law, thus challenging the legal validity of the original judgment.
Does Work-Life Imbalance Have an Effect on Child Custody?
Many parents with demanding, time-consuming jobs struggle to balance work and day-to-day obligations with spending time with their children. When parents divorce, the situation can feel even more difficult. It can be frustrating to try to squeeze in a career you trained for and love around a parenting plan that requires daily, specific child-care obligations.
Perhaps even worse, if your divorce is particularly contentious, your spouse may use your job to seek primary child custody. If you truly believe that it is in your child’s best interests for you to be awarded primary custody, it can be exasperating to be forced to prove your job will not interfere with your ability to parent.
If you understand the potential "landmines" going in, you may be better able to achieve the custody situation that you want while ensuring your children do not suffer. Should you find yourself in such a tough situation, it is crucial that you contact an experienced Novi, MI child custody lawyer from Elkouri Heath, PLC. Our attorneys have been serving clients throughout southeastern Michigan for more than 23 years.
Differences In a Divorce That Includes a Lawyer as a Client
Research has placed the profession of bartending at the top of the chart for those most likely to get divorced time and time again. While you might think the reason for this is relatively low pay or the fact that the job requires interaction with alcohol, you would be wrong. Across all professions, those with the highest rates of divorce had non-traditional schedules and long hours. Of course, some of them also had those two things, along with low pay and dangerous conditions.
While lawyers might not fall under low pay or hazardous working conditions, many do have very long hours and non-traditional schedules. This is true, especially for new lawyers and lawyers in very large law firms. Regardless of the reasons, lawyers, like everyone else, can find their marriage falling apart and may choose to divorce. Splitting up a business or professional practice adds extra layers of complexities to divorce and requires specific knowledge and experience.
How Does a Michigan Annulment Work?
Many people associate an annulment with Catholicism. In that situation, an annulment is not a legal avenue to ending a marriage; rather, it is a spiritual one. Across the United States, each state has its own statutes that govern annulments and divorce. When you go through legal channels, an annulment renders your marriage as though it never happened, although there are rules in place for children born of the marriage as well as for asset division.
If you believe your Michigan marriage qualifies for an annulment and need help sorting out the details, it could be extremely beneficial to speak to a Northville, MI divorce attorney. When you have an attorney from Elkouri Heath, PLC who truly cares about your family law issue, you can rest easy knowing they will fight for the best outcome possible while always having your back.
What Are the Requirements for a Michigan Annulment?
The state of Michigan does allow legal annulments but within a very narrow framework. An annulment must meet one of the following criteria:
Could Qualifying for Medicaid Require a Gray Divorce?
Although most divorces result from two spouses no longer wanting to live together, there are exceptions, most notably among gray divorces, when one spouse needs long-term nursing home care. A gray divorce is one between older spouses, usually 60 and up. Although Medicaid requirements have changed over the years—to some extent—there are still situations that could benefit from divorce. In other situations, divorce is desired by both parties, and Medicaid eligibility is simply a by-product.
As of July 2023, Medicaid was the primary payer for more than 62 percent of nursing home facility residents. Medicare pays for about 13 percent—but only for up to 100 days—and the remainder of nursing home costs are paid out-of-pocket or through private insurance. Since the average cost across the United States for a nursing home is about $8,000 per month for a shared room and $9,000 per month for a private room, few can afford to self-pay. Having an experienced Northville, MI divorce attorney help you sort out the details of your specific situation and determine the best solution can be invaluable.
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