Michigan divorce laws
Child
Support
The state's child support plan
is based on Michigan divorce laws and what
is called the Income Shares Model.
The court may at any time after the filing of a petition for divorce (or any other action involving minor children) issue an order for the care, custody, and support of the minor children of the parties. Courts also have the latitude to issue child support orders, in certain circumstances, for children who are not minors.
Trying to calculate how much one pays under the income shares format can get pretty dicey. In cases where a party is intentionally unemployed or under-employed, the courts will impute (calculate what that person is capable of earning), and assign that amount without regard to that person's lowered income. See this site's link to the Michigan statutes that are the basis for calculating child support.
| Divorce Myth: Men Do Not Care for their Children as much as Women. Reality: Men (fathers) do care for their children as much as the mother (in majority of the households). However, nature has selected women to be the primary care-givers. The maternal instinct for protecting and loving children runs strong in women. As the initial nurturing of the infant is done by the mother, it leads to a strengthening of motherly bond. However, these gender-based roles are being re-defined. Fathers are capable of, and are caring for their young like the mothers. |
Residency
Michigan divorce laws dictate that either
the person filing the petition for divorce,
or the respondent must have resided in Michigan
for 180 days immediately preceding that filing
of the complaint. 19 days must have elapsed
for one or the other in a particular county
to file an action in that county. Certain
conditions allow petitioners to have the
10 day county residency waived.
Child
Custody
This
state bases
its child custody court
decisions on the “best
interests of the child” as
set forth by Michigan
divorce statutes.
Considerations the court uses in its child custody rulings are:
- The love, affection, and other emotional ties existing between the parents involved and the child.
- The capacity of the parties involved to give the child love, affection, and guidance and to continue the education and raising of the child in his or her religion
- The capacity of the parties involved to provide the child with food, clothing, medical care
- How long the child has lived in a stable environment, and the desirability of maintaining continuity
- The permanence of the existing or proposed custodial home or homes.
- The moral fitness of the parties involved.
- The mental and physical health of the parties involved
- The home, school, and community record of the child.
- The reasonable preference of the child, if the court considers the child to be of sufficient age to express a preference.
- The willingness and ability of each of the parties to encourage a close and continuing parent-child relationship between the child and the other parent or the child and the parents.
- Domestic violence, regardless of whether the violence was directed against or witnessed by the child.
- Any other factor considered by the court to be relevant to a particular child custody dispute.
Orders for the care and custody by the court can be ordered at any time after the filing, including after the final decree has been issued.
Grounds
for
Divorce
Grounds for divorce can be filed based on the allegation that there has been a breakdown of the marriage, the relationship has been destroyed and no reasonable likelihood that the marriage can be preserved. Irreconcilable differences is the common phrase used in such a pleading.
The defendant may either admit the grounds for divorce or deny them without further explanation. Should the defendant admit to the grounds, the court is not bound to make that determination until the court is satisfied that the admission is true and correct.
The court shall enter a judgment dissolving the marriage if evidence is presented in such a way that the court determines there is no reasonable chance the marriage can be preserved.
| Divorce Myth: Being very unhappy at certain points in a marriage is a good sign that the marriage will eventually end in divorce. Reality: All marriages have their ups and downs. Recent research using a large national sample found that eighty six percent of people who were unhappily married in the late 1980s, and stayed with the marriage, indicated when interviewed five years later that they were happier. Indeed, three fifths of the formerly unhappily married couples rated their marriages as either “very happy” or “quite happy.” |
Mediation
Michigan courts may at any time after the filing of a divorce petition, based on grounds or irretrievable breakdown of the marriage, order the parties to participate in family mediation or counseling.
Alimony
 Parties
may request alimony or maintenance at any time after the initial
filing, and are not required to produce evidence or explanation in
the initial petition for alimony. The defendant may either admit
the grounds for separate alimony or maintenance or deny them without
further explanation. An admission by the defendant of the grounds
for separate alimony or maintenance can be considered by the court
but is not binding on the court's determination. The defendant may
also file a counterclaim for divorce.
If a counterclaim for divorce is entered, it need not be accompanied with proof, and is not binding on the court.
If evidence is presented in open court that there has been a breakdown in the marriage relationship to the extent that the objects of matrimony have been destroyed and there remains no reasonable likelihood that the marriage can be preserved, the court shall enter:
- A judgment of separate maintenance if a counterclaim for divorce has not been filed.
- A judgment dissolving the bonds of matrimony if a counterclaim for divorce has been filed
Alimony granted to a party by the court can be temporary, for a specific period, or permanent. Remarriage or co-habitation can cause the alimony to be voided.
Waiting
Period
 In cases where a filing of divorce is presented, 60 days must have passed before any testimony may be taken, or any final judgment rendered. An exception to that 60 days would occur in cases of desertion. In petitions where minor children are involved, 180 days from the date of filing must elapse before any testimony may be taken. Hardship cases involving children can have the 60 day waiting period waived by a motion to the court. When the defendant lives outside of Michigan at the time of the filing, or did not live in Michigan when the alleged cause for the divorce occurred, the spouse filing the action must provide proof that the couple lived in Michigan for some period of time, or that the petitioner resided in Michigan for one year prior to the filing.
Grandparents
Rights
Grand parenting may petition the court for visitation by filing a motion before the court.
| Divorce Myth: Following divorce, the woman’s standard of living plummets by seventy three percent while that of the man’s improves by forty two percent. Reality: This dramatic inequity, one of the most widely publicized statistics from the social sciences, was later found to be based on a faulty calculation. A reanalysis of the data determined that the woman’s loss was twenty seven percent while the man’s gain was ten percent. Irrespective of the magnitude of the differences, the gender gap is real and seems not to have narrowed much in recent decades. |
Dividing Assets
 Michigan has interesting language in its provision for dividing marital assets, and seems to go beyond the standard "fair and equitable" language found in other states. The statement seems to encourage courts to strengthen the position of stay-at-home parents who jointly decided with the spouse that their stay-at-home status was an equal contribution to all assets accumulated. In a proceeding of divorce, a Michigan circuit court may "award to a party all or a portion of the property, either real or personal, owned by his or her spouse, as appears to the court to be equitable under all the circumstances of the case, if it appears from the evidence in the case that the party contributed to the acquisition, improvement, or accumulation of the property. The decree, upon becoming final, shall have the same force and effect as a quitclaim deed of the real estate, if any, or a bill of sale of the personal property, if any, given by the party's spouse to the party."
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